# gaze

Pronunciation: say "GAYZ" US /ɡeɪz/, AUS /ˈɡæɪz/

## Verb

1. To look steadily and intently at something, often in wonder or deep attention.
   - Simple: To look at something for a long time, often with great interest.
   - _Visitors gaze in awe at the cathedral's painted ceiling._
   - _He gazed across the valley as the sun went down._
3. To look upon someone or something with a long, fixed stare. *(literary)*
   - Simple: To look at someone or something with a long, fixed stare.

## Noun

2. A fixed, continued look, often one of eagerness, wonder, or admiration.
   - Simple: A long, steady look, often full of interest or wonder.
   - _She fixed the crowd with a gaze of quiet admiration._
   - _His gaze never left the horizon as the ship approached._
4. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the subject's relationship to both the desire to look and the awareness of being able to be looked at.
   - Simple: In one area of psychology, the wish to look at others while also knowing others can see you.
   - _Lacan's concept of the gaze captures the unease of knowing one can be observed while observing._
   - _Feminist film theory borrowed the gaze to analyze how cinema positions its viewers._

## Noun

5. The thing or person that is looked upon; the object of a fixed and continued look. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The person or thing that someone is looking at for a long time.
   - _The young queen was the gaze of the assembled court as she descended the stair._
   - _That distant tower stood as the gaze of travelers crossing the plain._

## Origin

From Middle English gasen, akin to Swedish dialectal gasa and Gothic usgaisjan ("to terrify").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/gaze (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).