breeze1
[breez]
- a wind or current of air, especially a light or moderate one.
- a wind of 4–31 miles per hour (2–14 m/sec).
- Informal. an easy task; something done or carried on without difficulty: Finding people to join in the adventure was a breeze.
- Chiefly British Informal. a disturbance or quarrel.
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- (of the wind) to blow a breeze (usually used impersonally with it as subject): It breezed from the west all day.
- to move in a self-confident or jaunty manner: She breezed up to the police officer and asked for directions.
- Informal. to proceed quickly and easily; move rapidly without intense effort (often followed by along, into, or through): He breezed through the task. The car breezed along the highway.
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- to cause to move in an easy or effortless manner, especially at less than full speed: The boy breezed the horse around the track.
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- breeze in, Slang.
- to win effortlessly: He breezed in with an election plurality of 200,000.
- Also breeze into/out.to move or act with a casual or careless attitude: He breezed out without paying attention to anyone.
- breeze up, Atlantic States. to become windy.
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- shoot/bat the breeze, Slang.
- to converse aimlessly; chat.
- to talk nonsense or exaggerate the truth: He likes to shoot the breeze, so don't take everything he says seriously.
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Origin of breeze1
1555–65; earlier brize, brise north or northeast wind; compare Dutch bries, East Frisian brîse, French brize, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan brisa, Italian brezza; orig. and path of transmission disputed
Synonyms
See more synonyms for breeze on Thesaurus.com1. See wind1.
breeze2
[breez]
- cinders, ash, or dust from coal, coke, or charcoal.
- concrete, brick, or cinder block in which such materials form a component.
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Origin of breeze2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for breeze
Contemporary Examples
There is a breeze, and that is the only thing that differentiates it from a sauna.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in IraqNathan Bradley Bethea
August 31, 2014
Every move in Damascus has wide repercussions in Beirut or, as a local say, “a breeze in Syria becomes a storm in Lebanon.”
A morning-glory vine hanging from a guy wire stirs, like a heavy curtain, in the cool morning breeze.
He struck a match, but the breeze from the window fan blew it out.
The white blooms dotted the asphalt and swirled in the breeze under the orange glow of the street lamps.
Historical Examples
He has an air, it is true, but his air is not a breeze, like the air of a pretender to fashion.
Not a breeze can stir but it thrills us with the breath of autumn.
The Old Manse (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")Nathaniel Hawthorne
Her stiff cap moved in the breeze as it swung from the corner of her mirror.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
They were trembling, not so much under the breeze as from the hurrying rhythm of the year.
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
For a moment Pierre was transported as by a breeze of hope and triumph.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
breeze1
- a gentle or light wind
- meteorol a wind of force two to six inclusive on the Beaufort scale
- informal an easy task or state of easebeing happy here is a breeze
- informal, mainly British a disturbance, esp a lively quarrel
- shoot the breeze informal to chat
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- to move quickly or casuallyhe breezed into the room
- (of wind) to blowthe south wind breezed over the fields
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Word Origin
C16: probably from Old Spanish briza northeast wind
breeze2
- an archaic or dialect name for the gadfly
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Word Origin
Old English briosa, of unknown origin
breeze3
- ashes of coal, coke, or charcoal used to make breeze blocks
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Word Origin
C18: from French braise live coals; see braise
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for breeze
n.
1560s, "north or northeast wind," from Old Spanish briza "cold northeast wind;" in West Indies and Spanish Main, the sense shifting to "northeast trade wind," then "fresh wind from the sea." English sense of "gentle or light wind" is from 1620s. An alternative possibility is that the English word is from East Frisian brisen "to blow fresh and strong." The slang for "something easy" is American English, c.1928.
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v.
"move briskly," 1904, from breeze (n.). Related: Breezed; breezing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with breeze
breeze
In addition to the idiom beginning with breeze
- breeze in
also see:
- hands down (in a breeze)
- shoot the breeze
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.