shoot the breeze
noun
1.
a wind or current of air, especially a light or moderate one.
2.
a wind of 4–31 miles per hour (2–14 m/sec).
3.
Informal. an easy task; something done or carried on without difficulty: Finding people to join in the adventure was a breeze.
4.
Chiefly British Informal. a disturbance or quarrel.
verb (used without object)
5.
(of the wind) to blow a breeze (usually used impersonally with it as subject): It breezed from the west all day.
6.
to move in a self-confident or jaunty manner: She breezed up to the police officer and asked for directions.
7.
Informal. to proceed quickly and easily; move rapidly without intense effort (often followed by along, into, or through ): He breezed through the task. The car breezed along the highway.
00:10
Shoot the breeze
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
verb (used with object)
Verb phrases 8.
to cause to move in an easy or effortless manner, especially at less than full speed: The boy breezed the horse around the track.
9.
breeze in, Slang.
a.
to win effortlessly: He breezed in with an election plurality of 200,000.
b.
Also, breeze intoout. to move or act with a casual or careless attitude: He breezed out without paying attention to anyone.
10.
Idioms breeze up, Atlantic States. to become windy.
11.
shoot/bat the breeze, Slang.
a.
to converse aimlessly; chat.
b.
to talk nonsense or exaggerate the truth: He likes to shoot the breeze, so don't take everything he says seriously.
Origin:
1555–65; earlier brize, brise north or northeast wind; compare Dutch bries, East Frisian brîse, French brize, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan brisa, Italian brezza; orig. and path of transmission disputed
1555–65; earlier brize, brise north or northeast wind; compare Dutch bries, East Frisian brîse, French brize, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan brisa, Italian brezza; orig. and path of transmission disputed
Related forms
breeze·less, adjective
breeze·like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To shoot the breeze
Collins
World English Dictionary
breeze1 (briːz) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a gentle or light wind |
| 2. | meteorol a wind of force two to six inclusive on the Beaufort scale |
| 3. | informal an easy task or state of ease: being happy here is a breeze |
| 4. | informal chiefly (Brit) a disturbance, esp a lively quarrel |
| 5. | informal shoot the breeze to chat |
| —vb | |
| 6. | to move quickly or casually: he breezed into the room |
| 7. | (of wind) to blow: the south wind breezed over the fields |
| [C16: probably from Old Spanish briza northeast wind] | |
| breeze2 (briːz) | |
| —n | |
| an archaic or dialect name for the gadfly | |
| [Old English briosa, of unknown origin] | |
| breeze3 (briːz) | |
| —n | |
| ashes of coal, coke, or charcoal used to make breeze blocks | |
| [C18: from French braise live coals; see | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
breeze
1560s, "north or northeast wind," from O.Sp. briza "cold northeast wind;" in W.Indies and Spanish Main, the sense shifting to "northeast trade wind," then "fresh wind from the sea." English sense of "gentle or light wind" is from 1620s. An alternative possibility is that the English word is from E.Fris.
brisen "to blow fresh and strong." The slang for "something easy" is Amer.Eng., c.1928; breezeway is 1931, Amer.Eng.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
breeze definition
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
shoot the breeze definition
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases
shoot the breeze
Also, shoot or throw the bull. Talk idly, chat, as in They've been sitting on the porch for hours, just shooting the breeze, or The guys sit around the locker room, throwing the bull. The first of these slangy terms, alluding to talking into the wind, was first recorded in 1919. In the variant, first recorded in 1908, bull is a shortening of bullshit, and means "empty talk" or "lies."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
