glide

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To move in a smooth, effortless manner: a submarine gliding through the water. See Synonyms at slide.
2. v. To move silently and furtively.
3. v. To occur or pass imperceptibly.
4. v. To fly without propulsion. Used of an aircraft.
5. v. Music To blend one tone into the next; slur.
6. v. Linguistics To articulate a glide in speech.
7. v. To cause to move or pass smoothly, silently, or imperceptibly.
8. n. The act of gliding.
9. n. Music A slur.
10. n. Linguistics The transitional sound produced by passing from the articulatory position of one speech sound to that of another.
11. n. Linguistics See semivowel.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To move smoothly and without discontinuity or jar; pass or slip along without apparent effort; sweep along with a smooth, easy, rapid motion, as a stream in its channel, a bird through the air, or a ship through the water.
2. Specifically In music, to pass from tone to tone without break; slur. Synonyms Slip, etc. See slide.
3. n. A gliding movement; the act of moving smoothly and evenly.
4. n. In music and pronunciation, the joining of two successive sounds without a break; a transition-sound involuntarily produced between two principal sounds; a slur.
5. n. In dancing, a peculiar waltz-step performed in a smooth and sliding manner.
6. In cricket, to glance; allow the ball to meet the bat and be deflected from it, usually to the leg side.
7. n. In phonetics, a fleeting sound produced in passing from one position of the organs of speech to another, as in pronouncing the sound-combination ki in the word ‘kind’ designated the off-glide of the first letter and the on-glideof the second .
8. n. In cricket, a glance; a stroke by which, instead of being hit, the ball is allowed to strike the bat and to be deflected from it, usually to the leg side.

Wiktionary

1. v. intransitive To move softly, smoothly, or effortlessly.
2. v. intransitive To fly unpowered, as of an aircraft.
3. v. transitive To cause to glide.
4. n. The act of gliding.
5. n. linguistics Semivowel
6. n. fencing An attack or preparatory movement made by sliding down the opponent’s blade, keeping it in constant contact.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) The glede or kite.
2. v. To move gently and smoothly; to pass along without noise, violence, or apparent effort; to pass rapidly and easily, or with a smooth, silent motion, as a river in its channel, a bird in the air, a skater over ice.
3. v. (Phon.) To pass with a glide, as the voice.
4. v. (Aëronautics) To move through the air by virtue of gravity or momentum; to volplane.
5. n. The act or manner of moving smoothly, swiftly, and without labor or obstruction.
6. n. (Phon.) A transitional sound in speech which is produced by the changing of the mouth organs from one definite position to another, and with gradual change in the most frequent cases; as in passing from the begining to the end of a regular diphthong, or from vowel to consonant or consonant to vowel in a syllable, or from one component to the other of a double or diphthongal consonant (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 19, 161, 162). Also (by Bell and others), the vanish (or brief final element) or the brief initial element, in a class of diphthongal vowels, or the brief final or initial part of some consonants (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 18, 97, 191).
7. n. (Aëronautics) Movement of a glider, aëroplane, etc., through the air under gravity or its own movement.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. cause to move or pass silently, smoothly, or imperceptibly
2. n. the activity of flying a glider
3. n. the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it
4. v. fly in or as if in a glider plane
5. v. move smoothly and effortlessly
6. n. a vowellike sound that serves as a consonant