See Also: cut glass(dictionary)
glass(2)(dictionary)
Through the Looking-Glass(dictionary)
looking glass(dictionary)
Glass(medicine)
looking-glass(dictionary)
glass(1)(dictionary)
cut glass(encyclopedia)
glass(encyclopedia)
Waterford glass(encyclopedia)

glass(1) (iou)



glass noun & adjective. [glɑ:s]

A. noun.
I.
A substance, usu. transparent, lustrous, hard, and brittle, made by fusing soda or potash or both with other ingredients. OE.
H. M. Rosenberg Many materials..such as glass and cast iron, exhibit brittle fracture.
Any of various other substances of similar properties or composition; any more or less rigid substance which has solidified from a molten state without adopting a regular internal (crystalline) structure. L16.
J. Pinkerton The volcanic glass called obsidian, appears in such quantities as to constitute rocks.
The substance thus obtained considered as the material from which articles for use or ornament are made; collect. sing. such articles. E17.
W. Holtby The array of glass and silver on the sideboard.
b. spec. in Horticulture. The main constituent of a greenhouse, frame, etc.; collect. greenhouses. M19.
Anthony Huxley This plant prefers a very moist atmosphere under glass.
II.
A glass vessel or receptacle. Also, the contents of such a vessel or receptacle. ME.
Swift Miss, will you reach me that Glass of Jelly?
spec. A drinking-vessel made of glass; a drink (esp. an alcoholic one) contained in such a vessel. LME.
beer glass, liqueur glass, wineglass, etc.
J. Fowles She had another glass, and drank it off in a minute. W. Trevor Tippling away at glasses of sherry wasn't going to help the boy.
A double-chambered glass receptacle containing sand etc. for the measurement of a specified unit of time. (Earlier in HOURGLASS.) M16.
Jonathan Miller I will wait..until Time he shall break his glass.
b. Chiefly Nautical. The time taken by the sand etc. of such a glass to run completely from the upper to the lower chamber; esp. a half-hour. L16.
c. fig. An allotted period of existence. arch. M17.
G. Grote The glass of this worthless dynasty is run out.
III.
A single sheet of glass made to form a transparent protective covering; esp. (a) arch. a window in a coach; (b) a plate of glass covering a picture; (c) a glazed frame for plants. LME.
T. Hook Bang went the door, up went the glass.
A glass mirror. Formerly also, a mirror made of some other material. LME.
D. Lessing She had put the dress on and was looking at herself in the long glass.
b. A mirror, crystal, etc., used in fortune-telling. Long rare. M16.
Shakespeare Macbeth The eighth appears, who bears a glass which shows me many more.
A piece of glass shaped for a special purpose, as a lens in a pair of spectacles, a convex glass disc covering the face of a watch, etc. (Earliest in burning-glass below.) E16.
Sir W. Scott Pleydell wiped the glasses of his spectacles. R. Hughes I wiped the misty glass of my watch.
b. (The lens of) an eye. poet. L16-E17.
Shakespeare Richard II Even in the glasses of thine eyes I see thy grieved heart.
An optical instrument with a lens or lenses, used to aid sight esp. by magnifying; a telescope; (freq. in pl.) binoculars; arch. a microscope. E17.
field glass(es), opera glass(es), sunglasses, etc.
H. B. Tristram Even without a glass we could distinctly make out Jerusalem. R. Macaulay I was on deck looking through glasses for the first sight of Trebizond.
b. A lens for correcting or assisting defective sight, an eyeglass; in pl., spectacles. M17.
W. Cowper With glass at eye, and catalogue in hand. J. Wesley My eyes were so dim, that no glasses would help me.
A barometer. Formerly also, a thermometer. M17.
H. Allen The fourth day of calm, with the glass still low but no change.
Phrases etc.: burning-glass a lens or concave mirror by which the rays of the sun may be concentrated on an object to burn it if combustible. cut glass: see CUT ppl adjective. dark glasses: see DARK adjective. glass of antimony a vitreous mixed oxide and sulphide of antimony formed in antimony refining. ground glass: see GROUND ppl adjective. musical glasses: see MUSICAL adjective. soap of glass: see SOAP noun1. STAINED glass. Venetian glass: see VENETIAN adjective. vernal glass: see VERNAL adjective 1b. volcanic glass: see VOLCANIC adjective. Wood's glass: see WOOD noun3 1.
b. attrib. or as adjective.
Made of glass. OE.
Glazed, having pieces or panes of glass set in a frame. L16.
Comb. & special collocations: glass ball a ball made of glass, used esp. as an ornament; glass-blower a person who blows and shapes semi-molten glass; glass-blowing the action or an act of blowing and shaping semi-molten glass; glass case a case made chiefly of glass, for the exhibition and protection of its contents; glass ceiling fig. a barrier to personal advancement, esp. of a woman or members of ethnic minorities; glass-cloth (a) a linen cloth used for drying glassware etc.; (b) cloth covered with powdered glass, used for smoothing and polishing; (c) (without hyphenation) a woven fabric of fine-spun glass thread; glass coach (obsolete exc. Hist.) a coach with glass windows as opp. to an unglazed one; glass crab the larva of any of various shrimps; glass-cutter a person who or thing which shapes or decorates glass by cutting; glass-dust powdered glass; glass eye (a) = sense 10b above; (b) an artificial eye, esp. one made of glass; glass-faced adjective (rare) having a face that reflects the looks of another; glass fibre (a) a filament of glass; (b) glass in the form of such filaments, as made into fabric or embedded as a reinforcement in plastic; glass furnace: in which the constituents of glass are fused; glass gall sandiver; glass-gazing adjective (long rare or obsolete) given to contemplating oneself in a mirror, self-regarding, vain; glass-green adjective & noun (poet.) (of) a clear green colour; glass harmonica: see HARMONICA 1(b). glasshouse (a) a building where glass is made; (b) a building made chiefly of glass; esp. a greenhouse, a conservatory; (c) slang a military prison or guard room; glass humour the vitreous humour; glass lizard = glass snake below; glass-making the manufacture of glass; glass-man (now rare) a dealer in or maker of glass; glass paper: covered with powdered glass and used for polishing; glass-rope sponge a sponge of the genus Hyalonema, which roots itself to the seabed by a stem of twisted siliceous threads; glass slipper [mistranslating French pantoufle en vair fur slipper through confusion with verre glass] a slipper made of glass; esp. the one worn and lost by Cinderella in the fairy tale; glass snail a snail with a thin translucent shell; spec. Retinella pura; glass snake any of various snakelike lizards of the genus Ophiosaurus, of the southern US; glass sponge Zoology (a) any of various deep-water sponges of the class Hexactinellida, which often have a skeleton composed of fused six-pointed siliceous spicules; (b) = glass-rope sponge above; glassware articles made of glass; glass wool glass in the form of fine fibres for packing and insulation; glass work (a) (usu. in pl.) the works or factory where glass is manufactured; (b) the manufacture of glass and glassware, glazing; (c) glassware; glasswort a maritime plant of the goosefoot family rich in alkali and formerly used in the manufacture of glass: (a) any of various succulent jointed apparently leafless plants of the genus Salicornia, freq. dominant in salt-marshes; (b) (more fully prickly glasswort) prickly saltwort, Salsola kali.
glassful noun as much as a glass will hold E17.
glassless adjective E19.
glasslike adjective & adverb (a) adjective resembling glass, glassy, vitreous; (b) adverb (rare) in the manner of glass: E17.