glass

Etymology

From Middle English glas, from Old English glæs, from Proto-Germanic *glasą, possibly related to Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to shine”) (compare glow), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰel- (“to shine, shimmer, glow”). Cognate with West Frisian glês, Dutch glas, Low German Glas, German Glas, Swedish glas, Icelandic gler.

noun

1. (usually uncountable) An amorphous solid, often transparent substance, usually made by melting silica sand with various additives (for most purposes, a mixture of soda, potash and lime is added).
   The tabletop is made of glass.
   A popular myth is that window glass is actually an extremely viscous liquid.
   The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight. 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
2. (countable, uncountable, by extension) Any amorphous solid (one without a regular crystal lattice).
   Metal glasses, unlike those based on silica, are electrically conductive, which can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the application.
3. (countable) A vessel from which one drinks, especially one made of glass, plastic, or similar translucent or semi-translucent material.
   Fill my glass with milk, please.
4. (metonymically) The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.
   There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.
5. (uncountable) Glassware.
   We collected art glass.
6. A mirror.
   1599, Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus, Act III, Scene 1, J.M. Dent & Co., 1904, p. 67, […] for what lady can abide to love a spruce silken-face courtier, that stands every morning two or three hours learning how to look by his glass, how to speak by his glass, how to sigh by his glass, how to court his mistress by his glass? I would wish him no other plague, but to have a mistress as brittle as glass.
   As of old, he took down his portable glass hanging on a nail, and carefully wiping it, replaced it in its case. 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 216
   She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.
7. A magnifying glass or telescope.
   Haviers, or stags which have been gelded when young, have no horns, as is well known, and in the early part of the stalking season, when seen through a glass, might be mistaken for hummels […] 1912, The Encyclopædia of Sport & Games
8. (sports) A barrier made of solid, transparent material.
   1. (basketball, colloquial) The backboard.
      He caught the rebound off the glass.
   2. (ice hockey) The clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink.
      He fired the outlet pass off the glass.
9. A barometer.
   The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall for ever / But if you break the bloody glass you won’t hold up the weather. 1938, Louis MacNeice, “Bagpipe Music”, in The Earth Compels, page 59
10. (attributive, in names of species) Transparent or translucent.
    glass frog;  glass shrimp;  glass worm
11. (obsolete) An hourglass.
12. (uncountable, photography, informal) Lenses, considered collectively.
    Her new camera was incompatible with her old one, so she needed to buy new glass.
13. (now rare) A pane of glass; a window (especially of a coach or similar vehicle).
    [N]o sooner had we entered Holbourn than letting down one of the Front Glasses I enquired of every decent-looking Person that we passed ‘If they had seen my Edward?’ 1790, Jane Austen, “Love and Freindship”, in Juvenilia

verb

1. (transitive) To fit with glass; to glaze.
2. (transitive) To enclose in glass.
3. (transitive) Clipping of fibreglass">fibreglass. To fit, cover, fill, or build, with fibreglass">fibreglass-reinforced resin composite (fiberglass).
4. (transitive, UK, colloquial) To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
   JUDD. Any trouble last night? LES. Usual. Couple of punks got glassed. 1987, John Godber, Bouncers page 19
   I often mused on what the politicians or authorities would say if they could see for themselves the horrendous consequences of someone who’d been glassed, or viciously assaulted. 2002, Geoff Doherty, A Promoter's Tale page 72
   One night he was in this nightclub in Sheffield and he got glassed by this bloke who’d been just let out of prison that day. 2003, Mark Sturdy, Pulp page 139
5. (transitive, science fiction) To bombard an area with such intensity (nuclear bomb, fusion bomb, etc) as to melt the landscape into glass.
   “The Covenant don’t ‘miss’ anything when they glass a planet,” the Master Chief replied. 2012, Halo: First Strike,, page 190
6. (transitive) To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
   Andy took his binoculars and glassed the area below. 2000, Ben D. Mahaffey, 50 Years of Hunting and Fishing, page 95
7. (transitive) To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
8. (archaic, reflexive) To reflect; to mirror.
9. (transitive) To make glassy.
   Not only were his eyes averted from mine, but they were glassed to an uncanny degree. 2018, Harry Leon Wilson, Ruggles of Red Gap, page 199
10. (intransitive) To become glassy.
    Bourez had timed it perfectly: a wind that was forecast for the morning began to stir just after his arrival and the sea glassed off for a brief period before the waves grew bigger and bigger. 2012, Keith Duggan, Cliffs Of Insanity: A Winter On Ireland's Big Waves, page 32