gaze

American  

[gayz] / geɪz /

verb (used without object)

• gazes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• gazed,
  past participle,  past
• gazing
  present participle

1. 

   to look steadily and intently, as with great curiosity, interest, pleasure, or wonder.

---

noun

• gazes
  plural

1. a steady or intent look.

2. Heraldry. at gaze, (of a deer or deerlike animal) represented as seen from the side with the head looking toward the spectator.

   a stag at gaze.

gaze British  

/ ɡeɪz /

verb

1. (intr) to look long and fixedly, esp in wonder or admiration

---

noun

1. a fixed look; stare

Synonym Usage

Gaze, stare, gape suggest looking fixedly at something. To gaze is to look steadily and intently at something, especially at that which excites admiration, curiosity, or interest: to gaze at scenery, at a scientific experiment. To stare is to gaze with eyes wide open, as from surprise, wonder, alarm, stupidity, or impertinence: to stare unbelievingly or rudely. Gape is a word with uncomplimentary connotations; it suggests open-mouthed, often ignorant or rustic wonderment or curiosity: to gape at a tall building or a circus parade.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• gazer
  noun
• outgaze
  verb (used with object)
• gazeless
  adjective
• ungazing
  adjective
• gazingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• gazes
  plural

Participles

• gazing
  present
• gazed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• gaze
  simple
• gazes
  simple
• have gazed
  perfect
• has gazed
  perfect
• am gazing
  progressive
• are gazing
  progressive
• is gazing
  progressive
• have been gazing
  perfect progressive
• has been gazing
  perfect progressive

Past

• gazed
  simple
• had gazed
  perfect
• was gazing
  progressive
• were gazing
  progressive
• had been gazing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will gaze
  simple
• will have gazed
  perfect
• will be gazing
  progressive
• will have been gazing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of gaze

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English gasen; compare Norwegian, Swedish (dialect) gasa “to look”

Explanation

When someone lays eyes on you and keeps looking, it is a gaze or a stare. You can gaze back or just say, "Take a picture; it lasts longer." Gaze is both a verb and a noun. When people daydream, they often gaze off into the distance without focusing on anything. Another type of gaze, though, is to look very intently at something, as when you gaze at the sky making pictures out of clouds. A contest to see who will blink first means taking a long gaze into someone's eyes, and this type of gaze (the noun) will leave your eyes in a bit of a haze when you're done.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gaze gazes gazed gazing

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed an important series of tests showing that it can keep its gaze extremely steady during observations.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

Under the gaze of actress Rosario Dawson, pieces by designer Ermanno Daelli took on a rock and sexy edge, while remaining adaptable to many summer outfits.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

My gaze drifted to the bartenders, who seemed bored, waiting for the evening rush.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

With Angh, he wanted to reverse that gaze, asking viewers to "step inside the shoes of these characters".

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Mrs. Kuen’s gaze darted between Ba and me; she was plainly appalled that a girl would speak to her father like this.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Behind him, his comrade gazes upward, lost in thought.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

At one point in the clip, the white pup gazes adoringly at the NFL star before hopping onto a couch to snuggle beside him while Kelce lovingly pets the pooch.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026

Her fingers constantly twist a tissue as she tries to maintain her composure and she gazes into the distance as tears well up behind her glasses.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

From the top of a wind turbine nearly 100 metres above the ground, Grzegorz Witek, a coal miner, gazes at the horizon.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

But if Rishi felt the heat of their gazes, he didn’t show it.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon

When he gazed at the camera as Pennywise the clown, the resulting alert conveyed no concern about the menacing visage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026

We gazed across the lobby at each other and shared smiles that suggested, “Sure. Why not?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026

An American flag waved in the background while various figures gazed up at the president in reverence.

From Barron's ● Apr. 13, 2026

Thirty-five-year-old Javier Silva gazed longingly at a Yamaha parked on the street.

From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026

But while the rest of us gazed out at long rows of poplars in their bright June green, Mama’s eyes never left the sky.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

And so at the Humanoid Games, when one robot sprinter reacted to the starting gun by sitting down, then lying on its back and gazing at the sky, viewers saw a fellow casualty of burnout.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

When my yearlong tenure ended, I boarded my flight and soon was gazing out the airplane window over the Rockies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

The youngest son in a hodgepodge home, he wrote this memoir in 1993, gazing over his family’s 20th-century history.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

The Daily Telegraph calls the solar eclipse "the greatest show on Earth", picturing a crowd in Birmingham gazing at the phenomenon along with millions across the UK and Europe.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

Anna May had pushed aside a curtain and was gazing down at us in the lot.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu