Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

glass       (glās)  Pronunciation Key  n.   Any of a large class of materials with highly variable mechanical and optical properties that solidify from the molten state without crystallization, are typically made by silicates fusing with boric oxide, aluminum oxide, or phosphorus pentoxide, are generally hard, brittle, and transparent or translucent, and are considered to be supercooled liquids rather than true solids. Something usually made of glass, especially: A drinking vessel. A mirror. A barometer. A window or windowpane. glasses A pair of lenses mounted in a light frame, used to correct faulty vision or protect the eyes. A binocular or field glass. Often used in the plural. A device, such as a monocle or spyglass, containing a lens or lenses and used as an aid to vision. glasses A pair of lenses mounted in a light frame, used to correct faulty vision or protect the eyes. A binocular or field glass. Often used in the plural. A device, such as a monocle or spyglass, containing a lens or lenses and used as an aid to vision. The quantity contained by a drinking vessel; a glassful. Objects made of glass; glassware. adj.   Made or consisting of glass. Fitted with panes of glass; glazed. v.   glassed, glass·ing, glass·es v.   tr. To enclose or encase with glass. To put into a glass container. To provide with glass or glass parts. To see reflected, as in a mirror. To reflect. To make glassy; glaze. To see reflected, as in a mirror. To reflect. To scan (a tract of land or forest, for example) with an optical instrument. v.   intr. To become glassy. To use an optical instrument, as in looking for game. [Middle English glas, from Old English glæs; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Glass       (glās)  Pronunciation Key  American composer whose minimalist style of music contains elements of both rock and Indian music. His works include the opera Einstein on the Beach (1975).

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
glass 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

glass
noun
1.	a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure
2.	a container for holding liquids while drinking
3.	the quantity a glass will hold
4.	a small refracting telescope [syn: field glass]
5.	an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant
6.	a mirror; usually a ladies' dressing mirror [syn: looking glass]
7.	glassware collectively; "She collected old glass"
verb
1.	furnish with glass; "glass the windows"
2.	scan (game in the forest) with binoculars
3.	enclose with glass; "glass in a porch"
4.	put in a glass container
5.	become glassy or take on a glass-like appearance; "Her eyes glaze over when she is bored" [syn: glaze]

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

glass

In addition to the idioms beginning with glass, also see people who live in glass houses.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

glass       (glās)  Pronunciation Key  A usually transparent or translucent material that has no crystalline structure yet behaves like a solid. Common glass is generally composed of a silicate (such as silicon oxide, or quartz) combined with an alkali and sometimes other substances. The glass used in windows and windshields, called soda glass, is made by melting a silicate with sodium carbonate (soda) and calcium oxide (lime). Other types of glass are made by adding other chemical compounds. Adding boron oxide causes some silicon atoms to be replaced by boron atoms, resulting in a tougher glass that remains solid at high temperatures, used for cooking utensils and scientific apparatuses. Glass used for decorative purposes often has iron in it to alter its optical properties. Our Living Language  : 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.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

glass (glās)
n.

1. Any of a large class of materials with highly variable mechanical and optical properties that solidify from the molten state without crystallization, are typically made by silicates fusing with boric oxide, aluminum oxide, or phosphorus pentoxide, are generally hard, brittle, and transparent or translucent, and are considered to be supercooled liquids rather than true solids.
2. Something usually made of glass, such as a window, mirror, drinking vessel.
3. glasses A pair of lenses mounted in a light frame, used to correct faulty vision or protect the eyes. Also called spectacles.
4. A device, such as a monocle or spyglass, containing a lens or lenses and used as an aid to vision.

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

GLASS
General LAnguage for System Semantics.
An Esprit project at the University of Nijmegen.
(ftp://phoibos.cs.kun.nl/pub/GLASS).
(1995-01-25)

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

glass
(IBM) silicon.
[The Jargon File]

Jargon File - Cite This Source - Share This

glass

n. [IBM] Synonym for silicon.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Glass

Glass\, n. [OE. glas, gles, AS. gl[ae]s; akin to D., G., Dan., & Sw. glas, Icel. glas, gler, Dan. glar; cf. AS. gl[ae]r amber, L. glaesum. Cf. Glare, n., Glaze, v. t.]

1. A hard, brittle, translucent, and commonly transparent substance, white or colored, having a conchoidal fracture, and made by fusing together sand or silica with lime, potash, soda, or lead oxide. It is used for window panes and mirrors, for articles of table and culinary use, for lenses, and various articles of ornament.

Note: Glass is variously colored by the metallic oxides; thus, manganese colors it violet; copper (cuprous), red, or (cupric) green; cobalt, blue; uranium, yellowish green or canary yellow; iron, green or brown; gold, purple or red; tin, opaque white; chromium, emerald green; antimony, yellow.

2. (Chem.) Any substance having a peculiar glassy appearance, and a conchoidal fracture, and usually produced by fusion.

3. Anything made of glass. Especially: (a) A looking-glass; a mirror. (b) A vessel filled with running sand for measuring time; an hourglass; and hence, the time in which such a vessel is exhausted of its sand.

She would not live The running of one glass. --Shak. (c) A drinking vessel; a tumbler; a goblet; hence, the contents of such a vessel; especially; spirituous liquors; as, he took a glass at dinner. (d) An optical glass; a lens; a spyglass; -- in the plural, spectacles; as, a pair of glasses; he wears glasses. (e) A weatherglass; a barometer.

Note: Glass is much used adjectively or in combination; as, glass maker, or glassmaker; glass making or glassmaking; glass blower or glassblower, etc.

Bohemian glass, Cut glass, etc. See under Bohemian, Cut, etc.

Crown glass, a variety of glass, used for making the finest plate or window glass, and consisting essentially of silicate of soda or potash and lime, with no admixture of lead; the convex half of an achromatic lens is composed of crown glass; -- so called from a crownlike shape given it in the process of blowing.

Crystal glass, or Flint glass. See Flint glass, in the Vocabulary.

Cylinder glass, sheet glass made by blowing the glass in the form of a cylinder which is then split longitudinally, opened out, and flattened.

Glass of antimony, a vitreous oxide of antimony mixed with sulphide.

Glass blower, one whose occupation is to blow and fashion glass.

Glass blowing, the art of shaping glass, when reduced by heat to a viscid state, by inflating it through a tube.

Glass cloth, a woven fabric formed of glass fibers.

Glass coach, a coach superior to a hackney-coach, hired for the day, or any short period, as a private carriage; -- so called because originally private carriages alone had glass windows. [Eng.] --Smart.

Glass coaches are [allowed in English parks from which ordinary hacks are excluded], meaning by this term, which is never used in America, hired carriages that do not go on stands. --J. F. Cooper.

Glass cutter. (a) One who cuts sheets of glass into sizes for window panes, ets. (b) One who shapes the surface of glass by grinding and polishing. (c) A tool, usually with a diamond at the point, for cutting glass.

Glass cutting. (a) The act or process of dividing glass, as sheets of glass into panes with a diamond. (b) The act or process of shaping the surface of glass by appylying it to revolving wheels, upon which sand, emery, and, afterwards, polishing powder, are applied; especially of glass which is shaped into facets, tooth ornaments, and the like. Glass having ornamental scrolls, etc., cut upon it, is said to be engraved.

Glass metal, the fused material for making glass.

Glass painting, the art or process of producing decorative effects in glass by painting it with enamel colors and combining the pieces together with slender sash bars of lead or other metal. In common parlance, glass painting and glass staining (see Glass staining, below) are used indifferently for all colored decorative work in windows, and the like.

Glass paper, paper faced with pulvirezed glass, and used for abrasive purposes.

Glass silk, fine threads of glass, wound, when in fusion, on rapidly rotating heated cylinders.

Glass silvering, the process of transforming plate glass into mirrors by coating it with a reflecting surface, a deposit of silver, or a mercury amalgam.

Glass soap, or Glassmaker's soap, the black oxide of manganese or other substances used by glass makers to take away color from the materials for glass.

Glass staining, the art or practice of coloring glass in its whole substance, or, in the case of certain colors, in a superficial film only; also, decorative work in glass. Cf. Glass painting.

Glass tears. See Rupert's drop.

Glass works, an establishment where glass is made.

Heavy glass, a heavy optical glass, consisting essentially of a borosilicate of potash.

Millefiore glass. See Millefiore.

Plate glass, a fine kind of glass, cast in thick plates, and flattened by heavy rollers, -- used for mirrors and the best windows.

Pressed glass, glass articles formed in molds by pressure when hot.

Soluble glass (Chem.), a silicate of sodium or potassium, found in commerce as a white, glassy mass, a stony powder, or dissolved as a viscous, sirupy liquid; -- used for rendering fabrics incombustible, for hardening artificial stone, etc.; -- called also water glass.

Spun glass, glass drawn into a thread while liquid.

Toughened glass, Tempered glass, glass finely tempered or annealed, by a peculiar method of sudden cooling by plunging while hot into oil, melted wax, or paraffine, etc.; -- called also, from the name of the inventor of the process, Bastie glass.

Water glass. (Chem.) See Soluble glass, above.

Window glass, glass in panes suitable for windows.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Glass

Glass\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Glassed; p. pr. & vb. n. Glassing.]

1. To reflect, as in a mirror; to mirror; -- used reflexively.

Happy to glass themselves in such a mirror. --Motley.

Where the Almighty's form glasses itself in tempests. --Byron.

2. To case in glass. [R.] --Shak.

3. To cover or furnish with glass; to glaze. --Boyle.

4. To smooth or polish anything, as leater, by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Glass

was known to the Egyptians at a very early period of their national history, at least B.C. 1500. Various articles both useful and ornamental were made of it, as bottles, vases, etc. A glass bottle with the name of Sargon on it was found among the ruins of the north-west palace of Nimroud. The Hebrew word _zekukith_ (Job 28:17), rendered in the Authorized Version "crystal," is rightly rendered in the Revised Version "glass." This is the only allusion to glass found in the Old Testament. It is referred to in the New Testament in Rev. 4:6; 15:2; 21:18, 21. In Job 37:18, the word rendered "looking-glass" is in the Revised Version properly rendered "mirror," formed, i.e., of some metal. (Comp. Ex. 38:8: "looking-glasses" are brazen mirrors, R.V.). A mirror is referred to also in James 1:23.