Glaze

How to spell glaze

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce glaze

What does glaze mean?

1. verbTo cover something with a smooth, shiny coating, such as on pottery, food, or paint.
2. nounA smooth, shiny coating applied to a surface or to food.
3. verbOf the eyes, to become dull and unfocused, often from boredom or tiredness.

Glaze in a sentence

• verb

  The baker likes to glaze the buns with honey before serving.

• noun

  The doughnuts were finished with a sweet sugar glaze.

• verb

  His eyes began to glaze during the long afternoon meeting.

• verb

  Potters often glaze the clay before the second firing.

• noun

  The vase had a deep blue glaze that caught the light.

• verb

  The students' eyes would glaze whenever the lecture dragged on.

Where does glaze come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Glaze grew directly out of the Old English word for glass, 'glæs', a native Germanic term for the hard transparent substance. In Middle English the verb appeared as 'glasen', meaning to fit something with glass, and over time it softened into the modern 'glaze', meaning to set glass into a frame. From there the sense widened: just as glass gives a smooth, shiny, sealed surface, the word came to describe coating pottery, food, or paint with a thin glassy layer. The word is a close cousin of 'glass' itself and of 'glance' and 'glint', all carrying the old idea of brightness and shining. The spelling keeps the soft 'z' sound written as a 'z' rather than the 's' of its parent 'glass', which is the small trap that makes a few writers hesitate.

How the word is built

• glaz- (from glass)
• -e