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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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She scraped my skin with firm, painful strokes, and then moved on to cupping, placing glass suction cups across my back and shoulders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Substantial double-arch sliding glass doors that pocket into walls are mirrored on east and west walls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
“Many people can’t get through it. They can’t swallow well enough. They can’t talk well enough. They can’t hold the glass or mix the drink on their own.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
You can take a glass two-thirds full or a third empty view of that figure.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
The way she’d called it an infestation, how she’d leaned up against the glass caps and clomped through his crying kits.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Lorraine Glass, the director of Respect Me, Scotland's national anti-bullying service, said there were already a number of laws to safeguard children in Scotland.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
His considerable height, lean frame and beard only added to the sense that, at least in spirit, Mr. Glass has succeeded in summoning the man he so clearly venerates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Google Glass, the first to step forward and one of the company’s slate of “moonshot” projects, came out in 2013.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
“That’s My Bush!” ran for eight episodes in the spring of 2001, with plans to spin off into a feature called “George W. Bush and the Secret of the Glass Tiger.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
A sepia reproduction of a photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Glass was featured on the cover.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Freya is also worried about Meta glasses, having seen videos on social media of women after nights out without them being aware, as it is hard to tell between them and typical glasses.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
On Wednesday, Williamson was seen briefly on screen with dark hair and glasses as she listened to the hearing from HMP Downview prison in Surrey, England, alongside a mental health support worker.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
On social media, people have complained about being filmed without their knowledge, with accounts surfacing of users disabling the white light that signals the glasses are recording.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
He wears glasses like me and is now telling the story of his father to the nation, as I have for decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
She put her reading glasses on, read a line of her prepared remarks to herself, took the glasses off, looked at the audience, and repeated the words.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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 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
Tickets are sold at a tiny glassed booth.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 5, 2013
We end up at an area that’s glassed off, with people passing in and out of glass doors.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
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
The Board Factory also offers shaping space to board builders and has a complete glassing factory, for boards that are shaped elsewhere.
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.
