glide

present singular third person glides · participle present gliding · past glided · past glid · archaic past glode · participle past glided · participle past glid · archaic participle past glode · participle past glidden

1. intransitiveTo move softly, smoothly, or effortlessly.

   The river glideth at his own sweet will:

   1807, William Wordsworth, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 (Sonnet 14)”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   It is odd how easily the common-places of morality or of sentiment glide off in conversation. Well, they are "exceedingly helpful," and so Lord Avonleigh found them.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 137

   The water over which the boats glided was black and smooth, rising into huge foamless billows, the more terrible because they were silent.

   1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Chapter VI

   But it was 37-year-old Giggs who looked like a care-free teenager as he glided across the pitch he knows so well to breathtaking effect.

   2011 January 22, “Man Utd 5 - 0 Birmingham”, in BBC

   Synonyms: coast, slide

2. intransitiveTo fly unpowered, as of an aircraft. Also relates to gliding birds and flying fish.

   The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.

   1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8

3. transitiveTo cause to glide.
4. human sciencesTo pass with a glide, as the voice.

plural glides

1. The act of gliding.

   With stealthy glide he approached the door of his master's room, listened, cautiously peeped in, then entered.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

2. human sciencesA transitional sound, especially a semivowel.

   Synonyms: semivowel, semiconsonant

3. fencingAn attack or preparatory movement made by sliding down the opponent’s blade, keeping it in constant contact.
4. A bird, the glede or kite.
5. A kind of cap affixed to the base of the legs of furniture to prevent it from damaging the floor while being moved.
6. The joining of two sounds without a break.
7. A smooth and sliding step in dancing the waltz.

1. A census-designated place in Douglas County, Oregon, United States.