Synonyms

shoot the breeze

[breez] Origin

breeze

1[breez] noun, verb, breezed, breez·ing.
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.

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Shoot the breeze is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
verb (used with object)
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 into/out. to move or act with a casual or careless attitude: He breezed out without paying attention to anyone.
10.
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

breeze·less, adjective
breeze·like, adjective


1. See wind1.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To shoot the breeze
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.
EXPAND
brisen "to blow fresh and strong." The slang for "something easy" is Amer.Eng., c.1928; breezeway is 1931, Amer.Eng.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

breeze definition


  1. n.
    an easy task. : Nothing to it. It was a breeze.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

shoot the breeze definition


  1. tv.
    to chat casually and without purpose. : We spent the entire afternoon just shooting the breeze.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
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.
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