a hard, brittle, noncrystalline, more or less transparent substance produced by fusion, usually consisting of mutually dissolved silica and silicates that also contain soda and lime, as in the ordinary variety used for windows and bottles.
any artificial or natural noncrystalline and transparent hard substance, such as fused borax, obsidian, or the like.
something made of a noncrystalline and transparent hard substance, such as a windowpane.
a tumbler or other comparatively tall, handleless drinking container.
the quantity contained within a tumbler or other tall, handleless drinking container; a glassful.
She poured two glasses of wine for herself and her guest.
Drink a glass of orange juice and you'll feel better.
a tumbler or other tall, handleless drinking container with its contents.
Hand me that glass of milk.
Also called eyeglasses. glasses, a device to compensate for impaired vision or to protect the eyes from light, dust, and the like, consisting usually of two glass or plastic lenses set in a frame that includes a nosepiece for resting on the bridge of the nose and two sidepieces extending over or around the ears (usually used withpair of ).
a mirror.
things made of glass, collectively; glassware.
They used to collect old glass.
a lens, especially one used as a magnifying glass.
a spyglass.
made of glass.
a glass tray.
furnished or fitted with panes of glass; glazed.
to fit with panes of glass.
cover with or encase in glass.
to coat or cover with fiberglass.
to glass the hull of a boat.
to scan with a spyglass or other optical instrument.
to reflect.
Trees glassed themselves in the lake.
Carter, 1858–1946, U.S. statesman.
Philip, born 1937, U.S. composer.
a hard brittle transparent or translucent noncrystalline solid, consisting of metal silicates or similar compounds. It is made from a fused mixture of oxides, such as lime, silicon dioxide, etc, and is used for making windows, mirrors, bottles, etc
( as modifier )
a glass bottle
any compound that has solidified from a molten state into a noncrystalline form
something made of glass, esp a drinking vessel, a barometer, or a mirror
Also called: glassful. the amount contained in a drinking glass
glassware collectively
See volcanic glass
See fibreglass
to cover with, enclose in, or fit with glass
informal to hit (someone) in the face with a glass or a bottle
Common sand and glass are both made primarily of silicon and oxygen, yet sand is opaque and glass is transparent. Glass owes its transparency partly to the fact that it is not a typical solid. On the molecular level, solids usually have a highly regular, three-dimensional crystalline structure; the regularities distributed throughout the solid act as mirrors that scatter incoming light. Glass, however, consists of molecules which, though relatively motionless like a typical solid, are not arranged in regular patterns and thus exhibit little scattering; light passes directly through. At a specific temperature, called the melting point, the intermolecular forces holding together the components of a typical solid can no longer maintain the regular structure, which then breaks down, and the material undergoes a phase transition from solid to liquid. The phase transition in glass, however, depends on how quickly the glass is heated (or how quickly it cools), due to its irregular solid structure.
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun glas, Old English glæs; cognate with Dutch, German Glas
Glass is the hard, transparent material that's used to make windows. While glass can be strong and sturdy, it's also brittle and can be broken easily by an errant baseball. Glass has all kinds of practical uses, from car windshields to greenhouse windows to jam jars to drinking glasses. When someone offers you a glass of water, they're referring to the vessel itself as a glass and also to amount it can hold — the glassful of liquid. The Old English source of glass is glæs, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root that means "to shine."
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Wales is the only UK nation to include glass in its DRS and has faced a backlash from the drinks industry which warned of increased prices and reduced choice.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Shards of glass and porcelain crunched under Vadym's feet as he walked through the remains of his shop.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
A glass of ice water offers a familiar example of two phases existing at the same time.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
A police pursuit early Wednesday through Los Angeles ended in dramatic fashion when the fleeing vehicle smashed into a row of parked cars, injuring the driver and scattering glass and debris across the road.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Then with a sigh she let out the breath, set the glass on the sideboard, and sat down.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Glass deposit plan 'could push up prices for consumer'
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Levanon, chief economist of the labor research firm Burning Glass Institute, said robust economic growth and low hiring makes perfect sense in a period of fast-rising productivity.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
"At a time when the US-Japan Alliance is dedicated to cultivating prosperity across the Indo-Pacific, we strongly oppose any action that undermines its peace and stability," Glass added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
The 5 Point Cafe in Seattle, which banned Google Glass in the past, has banned Meta glasses from its diner and dive bar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
The two eldest Glass boys, Seymour and Buddy, had moved into it in 1929, at the respective ages of twelve and ten, and had vacated it when they were twenty-three and twenty-one.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Surveillance is starting to feel ubiquitous, between online bots tracking our every move to cameras everywhere, including the faces of other people wearing AI glasses.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Meta, Oakley and Ray-Ban face a criminal complaint in Germany over whether the companies’ AI glasses breach the country’s strict privacy rules.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
HateAid, a Berlin nonprofit, filed the complaint with the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime, arguing the new glasses allow for the secret filming of others in public.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
And for some in the UK, it was a race against time to find a pair of eye-protecting eclipse glasses as shortages grew.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Bowl of brown hair, big glasses on a small face.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
Wearing a plain khaki T-shirt and round-rimmed glassed, Griner was ushered a courtroom by police at Khimki District Court outside Moscow, Griner held up personal photographs before taking a seat in the defendant's cage.
From Reuters ● Aug. 2, 2022
The CD isn’t glassed in, and spins freely.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2018
The chef, Tanguy Laviale, 35, presides over a small open kitchen at the end of the rustic-chic dining room, which looks on a glassed inner courtyard planted with aromatic herbs.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2017
The actual window had been glassed off and transformed into a tableau mordant of how it might have looked 50 years ago, complete with repositories of musty school text books.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2013
He lowered the glasses and pulled down the cotton mask from his face and wiped his nose on the back of his wrist and then glassed the country again.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
Rubbert was by himself on the face of a cliff in Glacier glassing for grizzlies when a sow grizzly and her cub suddenly appeared.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 7, 2018
I did bricklaying, fibre glassing, I was a nanny, drove those rickshaw things, worked in a sandwich store – anything to get me from one place to the next.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 15, 2012
Andy Carroll is £3,500 lighter in the pocket after pleading guilty to accidentally glassing Michael Cook in a trendy Newcastle nightspot.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 25, 2010
After lunch, still driving, and having seen three more shooting-sized bucks, I asked Frank if we could get out of the truck and hike a bit, maybe do some glassing and stalking.
From Time Magazine Archive
He looked at Jam, his eyes glassing over with tears.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
