glass

From Middle English glas, from Old English glæs, from Proto-Germanic *glasą, possibly related root *glōaną (“to shine”) (compare glow), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰel- (“to shine, shimmer, glow”); cognate with West Frisian glês, Low German Glas, Dutch glas, German Glas, Icelandic gler, Swedish glas.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡlɑːs/

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ɑːs
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡlæs/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -æs

a glass (drinking vessel) of milk

glass (countable and uncountable, plural glasses)

1. (uncountable) An amorphous solid, often transparent substance made by melting sand with a mixture of soda, potash and lime.

   The tabletop is made of glass.

   A popular myth is that window glass is actually an extremely viscous liquid.

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

2. (countable) A vessel from which one drinks, especially one made of glass, plastic, or similar translucent or semi-translucent material.

   Fill my glass with milk, please.

3. (metonymically) The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.

   There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:

     Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

4. (uncountable) Glassware.

   We collected art glass.

5. A mirror.
   • 1599, Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus, Act III, Scene 1, J.M. Dent & Co., 1904, p. 67,

     […] for what lady can abide to love a spruce silken-face courtier, that stands every morning two or three hours learning how to look by his glass, how to speak by his glass, how to sigh by his glass, how to court his mistress by his glass? I would wish him no other plague, but to have a mistress as brittle as glass.

   She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.

6. A magnifying glass or telescope.
   • 1912, The Encyclopædia of Sport & Games

     Haviers, or stags which have been gelded when young, have no horns, as is well known, and in the early part of the stalking season, when seen through a glass, might be mistaken for hummels […]

7. (sports) A barrier made of solid, transparent material.
   1. (basketball, colloquial) The backboard.

      He caught the rebound off the glass.

   2. (ice hockey) The clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink.

      He fired the outlet pass off the glass.

8. A barometer.
   • 1938, Louis MacNeice, “Bagpipe Music”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever / But if you break the bloody glass you won’t hold up the weather.

9. (attributive, in names of species) Transparent or translucent.

   glass frog;  glass shrimp;  glass worm

10. (obsolete) An hourglass.
    • c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

      :

      Were my Wiues Liuer / Infected (as her life) ſhe would not liue / The running of one Glaſſe.

• → Fiji Hindi: gilaas
• → Indonesian: gelas
• → Japanese: グラス (gurasu), ガラス (garasu)
• → Kikuyu: ngirathi
• → Malay: gelas, ݢلس‎

glass (third-person singular simple present glasses, present participle glassing, simple past and past participle glassed)

1. (transitive) To fit with glass; to glaze.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Boyle to this entry?)

2. (transitive) To enclose in glass.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

3. (transitive) Clipping of fibreglass.. To fit, cover, fill, or build, with fibreglass-reinforced resin composite (fiberglass).
4. (transitive, Britain, colloquial) To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
   • 1987, John Godber, Bouncers page 19:

     JUDD. Any trouble last night?

     LES. Usual. Couple of punks got glassed.

   • 2002, Geoff Doherty, A Promoter's Tale page 72:

     I often mused on what the politicians or authorities would say if they could see for themselves the horrendous consequences of someone who’d been glassed, or viciously assaulted.

   • 2003, Mark Sturdy, Pulp page 139:

     One night he was in this nightclub in Sheffield and he got glassed by this bloke who’d been just let out of prison that day.

5. (science fiction) To bombard an area with such intensity (nuclear bomb, fusion bomb, etc) as to melt the landscape into glass.
   • 2012, Halo: First Strike, page 190:

     “The Covenant don’t ‘miss’ anything when they glass a planet,” the Master Chief replied.

6. To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
   • 2000, Ben D. Mahaffey, 50 Years of Hunting and Fishing, page 95:

     Andy took his binoculars and glassed the area below.

7. To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
8. (archaic, reflexive) To reflect; to mirror.
   • Motley

     Happy to glass themselves in such a mirror.

   • Byron

     Where the Almighty's form glasses itself in tempests.

9. To become glassy.
   • 2018, Harry Leon Wilson, Ruggles of Red Gap, →ISBN, page 199:

     Not only were his eyes averted from mine, but they were glassed to an uncanny degree.

• slags

From Old Irish glas (“blue-grey, green”), from Proto-Celtic *glastos.

glass

1. green (of nature), verdant

   Ta'n londaig hannah jeeaghyn slane glass. ― The lawn looks quite green already.

   yn faarkey glass tonnagh foin ― the green billowy sea under us

   yn awin ghlass ― the green river

2. grey (of animal), ashen (colour)
3. soft, pale, pasty
4. raw, unfledged, sappy
5. callow (of youth)

• coo glass (“greyhound; tope”)
• glassrey

From Old Irish glas (“lock, clasp”)

glass m (genitive singular glish or gleish, plural glish or gleish)

1. lock

   Hooar eh y glass er y dorrys roish. ― He found himself locked out.

   T'eh fo glass. ― He is behind bars.

   Ta glass er my hengey. ― My lips are sealed.

   Ta glass y dorrys er y çheu sthie. ― The door locks on the inside.

   Ta'n ogher shoh gentreil y glass. ― This key goes in the lock.

   Vrish ad y glass. ― They forced the lock.

glass (verbal noun glassey)

1. lock up, secure

glass

1. Alternative form of glas

From Middle Low German glas

glass n (definite singular glasset, indefinite plural glass, definite plural glassa or glassene)

1. glass (a hard and transparent material)
2. a glass (container for drink made of glass)

   et glass vin - a glass of wine

3. a small container, such as a jar or bottle

• glas (Nynorsk)

• “glass” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• glace (archaic)

Borrowed from French glace, from Old French glace, from Vulgar Latin *glacia, reformation (with change of declension) of Latin glacies, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡlas/

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glass c

1. an ice cream

• glass in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)