glass

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. 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.
2. n. Something usually made of glass, especially:
3. n. A drinking vessel.
4. n. A mirror.
5. n. A barometer.
6. n. A window or windowpane.
7. n. A pair of lenses mounted in a light frame, used to correct faulty vision or protect the eyes.
8. n. A binocular or field glass. Often used in the plural.
9. n. A device, such as a monocle or spyglass, containing a lens or lenses and used as an aid to vision.
10. n. The quantity contained by a drinking vessel; a glassful.
11. n. Objects made of glass; glassware.
12. adj. Made or consisting of glass.
13. adj. Fitted with panes of glass; glazed.
14. v. To enclose or encase with glass.
15. v. To put into a glass container.
16. v. To provide with glass or glass parts.
17. v. To make glassy; glaze.
18. v. To see reflected, as in a mirror.
19. v. To reflect.
20. v. To scan (a tract of land or forest, for example) with an optical instrument.
21. v. To become glassy.
22. v. To use an optical instrument, as in looking for game.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A substance resulting from the fusion of a combination of silica (rarely boracic acid) with various bases. See vitreous. It is usually hard, brittle, has a conchoidal fracture, and is more or less transparent, some kinds being entirely so, while other substances to which the name of glass is commonly given are, iu consequence of the impurity of the material or imperfection in the manufacture, only slightly translucent. Glass is an inorganic substance, as would naturally be inferred from its being the result of fusion, but some organic substances are called vitreous. Some rocks have a vitreous structure, like that of artificial glass, as, for instance, obsidian, which is often called volcanic glass. (See obsidian and lava.) The slags produced in furnace operations are vitreous substances, but usually only translucent, and not transparent, because the vitrification is incomplete, and also because they are too deeply colored by metallic oxids. Glass, as the word is generally understood, is an artificial product, and one of the most important of manufactured articles. Its valuable qualities are: the ease with which it can be made to take any desired shape; cheapness, the result of the small cost of the materials of which it is made; durability, and especially resistance to decomposition by acids and corrosive substances generally; transparency, a quality of the utmost importance, as evidenced by its use for windows and in optical and chemical instruments; and the beautiful luster of those kinds which are used for ornamental purposes. Almost the only drawback to these good qualities of glass is its brittleness. The bases used in glass-manufacture are chiefly soda, potash, lime, alumina, and oxid of lead, and the quality of the article produced depends on the nature and amount of the basic material united with the silica. The combinations of silica with a simple alkaline base, either potash or soda, are soluble in water, and are known as water-glass. (See soluble glass, below.) They are useful substances, but very different in their properties from what is ordinarily known as glass. In addition to the alkaline base there must be an alkaline earth or a metallic oxid. The cheapest glass is that used for bottles; in this the basic material is chiefly lime, with some potash or soda, and alumina. Glass for medicine-bottles differs from ordinary bottle-glass in containing more potash than the latter, and also in the greater purity of the material used. Window-glass usually contains both soda and lime: here absence of any tinge of color is important, except in the most inferior qualities. Potash and soda render the glass more fusible; alumina diminishes its fusibility; lime makes it harder; lead gives luster, fusibility, and high refractive power. Hence, in glass which is to be cut and polished, where beauty is of prime importance, the base is chiefly oxid of lead, which amounts in some cases to half the weight of the material used. Glass in which lead is the essential base is called crystal or flint-glass. (See these words.) The finer kinds of glass without lead are called crown-glass. The tools employed by the glass-blower are simple, but require dexterity for their use. The process of manufacture depends on the fact that, at a very high temperature, glass is a liquid which can be readily cast; at a full red heat it is soft, ductile, and easily welded; when cold, it is hard and brittle. Glass to be serviceable must be annealed after the desired form has been given to it. This is done by heating it nearly to the melting-point, and then allowing it to cool very slowly in an annealing-chamber. By the action of hydrofluoric acid, which combines readily with the silica in glass, etching can be done on a glass surface. When cold, glass can be ground or cut upon a wheel, scratched by a diamond-point (by which means sheets of glass are readily divided or shaped, as they will break easily along the lines of such scratches), cut and depolished, or “ground” by a sand-blast, and brought to an exceedingly high polish. Specimens of Egyptian glass are in existence which can be dated back to about 2400 B. c.; in Egyptian sculptures of 4000 b. c. glass bottles are undoubtedly represented; and among the bas-reliefs of Beni Hassan, about 2000 b. c., various operations of glass-blowing are portrayed. In historical Egyptian, Phenician, and Roman antiquity, glass was in familiar use. The great quantities of examples of ancient glass vessels which have been exhumed from tombs, etc., formerly clear and transparent, are now as a rule characterized by a brilliant iridization like that of mother-of-pearl. This iridization is due to the imperfect composition of the glass, which has thus become affected by moisture during its stay under ground. Though well known to the Greeks, glass was in less common use among them, owing to the perfection of their ceramic ware. In Europe the most artistic manufactures of glass have been, since the middle ages, those of Venice, characterized by great elegance of form and lightness and thiuness of substance, and those of Bohemia, of later date than the Venetian, and especially notable not only for grace of form, but for enameling, cutting, and engraved decoration.
2. n. A plate, screen, vessel, instrument, etc., made of glass.
3. n. A plate or pane of glass inserted in the frame of a window, picture, clock, hotbed, etc., to admit the light or permit a view, while excluding wind, rain, dust, or other interference.
4. n. A looking-glass; a mirror. It was formerly fashionable for ladies to carry a looking-glass hanging from the girdle.
5. n. A glass vessel filled with running sand for measuring time, called specifically an hour-glass; hence, the time in which a glass is exhausted of its sand; specifically (nautical), the time in which a half-hour glass is emptied of its sand.
6. n. A vessel made of glass: as, a jelly-glass; a finger-glass. Especially—
7. n. A drinking-vessel made of glass; hence, the quantity which such a vessel holds, and figuratively what one drinks, especially strong drink: as, fond of his glass.
8. n. An observing-instrument made of glass, or of which the main or most important part is of glass. A lens; a telescope; a field-glass. A barometer. A thermometer. An eye-glass: usually in the plural eye-glasses or spectacles.
9. n. Glass having a lime base instead of a lead base, in this sense including nearly all the ornamental glassware, vessels, etc., of the best periods and styles, Venetian Spanish, and others.
10. n. A kind of glass which is quite colorless, hard, difficultly fusible, and less readily acted upon by chemicals than any other kind of glass. Mirrors are often made of it, and it is largely used for the manufacture of chemical apparatus. It is made from ground quartz, purified potash, and lime.
11. n. A musical instrument consisting either of glass tubes or glass bowls, graduated in size, which can be played by the friction of the moistened finger. Also called glass harmonica.
12. n. Glass made ornamental by the application of a white metallic film to the unexposed side, giving it a silvery luster.
13. n. Less properly, same as enameled glass. See glass-painting.
14. n. Glass that has been heated and then suddenly cooled, under the process of F. Siemens. When the articles to be made are such as are generally molded, the molten glass is run into suitable molds and squeezed while it is highly heated, the mold cooling it sufficiently without the liquid bath.
15. [Attrib. use of the noun. The older adj. is glazen, q. v.] Made of glass; vitreous: as, a glass bottle.—
16. To case in glass; cover with or as if with glass; protect by a covering of glass.
17. To make glassy; give a glazed surface to; glaze or polish.
18. To reflect, as a mirror or other reflecting surface; show or observe a reflection of.
19. n. In petrography, glass is the natural product of the rapid cooling of igneous magmas, and in large masses is known as obsidian, pitchstone, and pumice. It may be colorless or of various colors, as white, yellow, orange, red, green, and black. It forms the ground-mass of many volcanic rocks, being sometimes recognizable by the unaided eye, but often only microscopically. Glass base to the name given to it when it forms the matrix for microscopic crystals in the ground-mass of a rock.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable A solid, transparent substance made by melting sand with a mixture of soda, potash and lime.
2. n. A vessel from which one drinks, especially one made of glass, plastic, or similar translucent or semi-translucent material.
3. n. The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.
4. n. physics, uncountable Amorphous (non-crystalline) substance.
5. n. uncountable Glassware.
6. n. A mirror.
7. n. A magnifying glass or telescope.
8. n. basketball, colloquial The backboard.
9. n. ice hockey The clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink.
10. n. A barometer.
11. v. transitive To furnish with glass; to glaze.
12. v. transitive To enclose with glass.
13. v. transitive, colloquial To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
14. v. To bombard an area with such intensity (nuclear bomb, fusion bomb, etc) as to melt the landscape into glass.
15. v. To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
16. v. To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
17. v. archaic, reflexive To reflect; to mirror.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. (Chem.) Any substance having a peculiar glassy appearance, and a conchoidal fracture, and usually produced by fusion.
3. n. Anything made of glass.
4. n. A looking-glass; a mirror.
5. n. 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.
6. n. A drinking vessel; a tumbler; a goblet; hence, the contents of such a vessel; especially; spirituous liquors; as, he took a glass at dinner.
7. n. An optical glass; a lens; a spyglass; -- in the plural, spectacles; as, a pair of glasses; he wears glasses.
8. n. A weatherglass; a barometer.
9. v. To reflect, as in a mirror; to mirror; -- used reflexively.
10. v. rare To case in glass.
11. v. To cover or furnish with glass; to glaze.
12. v. To smooth or polish anything, as leater, by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. furnish with glass
2. v. enclose with glass
3. n. a container for holding liquids while drinking
4. n. a small refracting telescope
5. n. a mirror; usually a ladies' dressing mirror
6. n. glassware collectively
7. v. put in a glass container
8. v. become glassy or take on a glass-like appearance
9. n. a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure
10. v. scan (game in the forest) with binoculars
11. n. the quantity a glass will hold
12. n. an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant