[glas, glahs]
something made of such a substance, as a windowpane.
a tumbler or other comparatively tall, handleless drinking container.
glasses, Also called eyeglasses. a device to compensate for defective 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 with pair of ). Compare goggle ( def 1 ), pince-nez, spectacle ( def 3 ).
a mirror.
things made of glass, collectively; glassware: They used to collect old glass.
a lens, especially one used as a magnifying glass.
made of glass: a glass tray.
furnished or fitted with panes of glass; glazed.
verb (used with object)
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.

before 900; Middle English glas (noun), Old English glæs; cognate with Dutch, German Glas

glassless, adjective
glasslike, adjective
nonglass, adjective
unglassed, adjective Unabridged


[glas, glahs]
Carter, 1858–1946, U.S. statesman.
Philip, born 1937, U.S. composer.

Google Glass

a computer that is worn like eyeglasses, has a tiny display within the field of vision, responds to voice commands and eye movements, and has a touchpad at the side: She's wearing Google Glass, and I think she just took your picture with it.
Also called Glass. Unabridged
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World English Dictionary
glass (ɡlɑːs)
1.  a.  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
 b.  (as modifier): a glass bottle Related: vitreous, vitric
2.  any compound that has solidified from a molten state into a noncrystalline form
3.  something made of glass, esp a drinking vessel, a barometer, or a mirror
4.  Also called: glassful the amount contained in a drinking glass
5.  glassware collectively
6.  See volcanic glass
7.  See fibreglass
8.  to cover with, enclose in, or fit with glass
9.  informal to hit (someone) in the face with a glass or a bottle
Related: vitreous, vitric
[Old English glæs; related to Old Norse gler, Old High German glas, Middle High German glast brightness; see glare1]

Glass (ɡlɑːs)
Philip. born 1937, US avant-garde composer noted for his minimalist style: his works include Music in Fifths (1970), Akhnaten (1984), The Voyage (1992), and Monsters of Grace (1998)

glasses (ˈɡlɑːsɪz)
pl n
spectacles, Also called: eyeglasses a pair of lenses for correcting faulty vision, in a frame that rests on the bridge of the nose and hooks behind the ears

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History

O.E. glæs, from W.Gmc. *glasam (cf. M.Du. glas, Ger. Glas), from P.Gmc. base *gla-/*gle-, from PIE *gel-/*ghel- "to shine, glitter, be green or yellow," a color word that is the root of words for grey, blue, green, and yellow (cf. O.E. glær "amber," L. glaesum "amber," O.Ir. glass "green,
blue, gray," Welsh glas "blue"). Sense of "drinking glass" is early 13c.; glasses for "spectacles" is 1660s. The glass slipper in "Cinderella" is probably an error by Charles Perrault, translating in 1697, mistaking O.Fr. voir "ermine, fur" for verre "glass." In other versions of the tale it is a fur slipper. Glass ceiling first recorded 1990.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

glass (glās)

  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.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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Bible Dictionary

Glass definition


Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases


see see through rose-colored glasses.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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