glass

Less common meanings

7. 7
   nounarchaiccountable

   A window or pane of glass, particularly one fitted in a vehicle.

   [N]o sooner had we entered Holbourn than letting down one of the Front Glasses I enquired of every decent-looking Person that we passed ‘If they had seen my Edward?’

   1790, Jane Austen, “Love and Freindship”

   Note

   An older name for the window of a coach or carriage, now archaic. Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship", written in 1790, has her heroine letting down "one of the Front Glasses" to question passers-by in Holborn. The verb is telling: carriage glasses were let down, much as car windows are today. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Glass formerly denoted a carriage window or pane. en.wiktionary.org
   • Jane Austen wrote Love and Freindship. janeausten.ac.uk
   • The work was written in 1790. This is its composition date; first publication was in 1922. gutenberg.org
   • The heroine Laura lowers a carriage window and questions people in Holborn; the quoted wording is exact. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   mirrornouncountable or uncountable

   A mirror, or a polished surface that reflects an image.

   She studied her reflection in the glass above the mantel.

   He caught sight of his own tired face in the old glass that hung above the fireplace.

   Similarmirror

9. 9
   non-crystal solidnouncountable or uncountable

   In science, any amorphous (non-crystalline) solid that softens gradually into a liquid-like state when heated, passing through a glass transition.

   Obsidian is a volcanic glass formed when lava cools too quickly to crystallize.

   Metallic glasses can be produced by cooling molten alloys at extreme rates.

   Note

   A scientist's widening of the everyday word: any non-crystalline solid that softens through a glass transition, whatever it is made of. Metal glasses, for instance, conduct electricity, while common silica-based ones are normally insulators. Window glass is simply the most familiar member of a large family. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The scientific category includes non-crystalline solids exhibiting a glass transition, regardless of composition. books.rsc.org
   • Metallic glasses conduct electricity. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    see-throughnouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun

    Used before the name of an animal to mark a species whose body is transparent or translucent.

    Through the belly of a glass frog, the researchers could watch its heart pumping blood.

    Glass shrimp are popular with aquarium keepers because their clear bodies all but vanish against the plants.

    Note

    A noun doing an adjective's job in naturalists' names: glass frog, glass shrimp, glass catfish.

11. 11
    camera lensesnouncolloquialuncountable

    Camera lenses considered collectively, as part of a photographer's equipment.

    Professional photographers invest heavily in quality glass before upgrading their camera bodies.

    The wildlife shooter packed his longest glass for the safari.

    Similarlenses, optics

    Note

    It is informal shop talk among enthusiasts, and it treats lenses as their own investment, apart from the camera body. That is why switching camera systems can mean needing new glass when the old lenses will not fit. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Switching camera systems can require replacement lenses because existing lenses may be incompatible. cam.start.canon
12. 12
    telescopenouncountable or uncountable

    A telescope or spyglass used to view distant objects.

    From the crow's nest, the lookout swept the horizon with his glass.

    The astronomer turned his glass toward the rising planet.

    Similartelescope, spyglass

    Note

    The telescope named by its lens, a usage shared by stargazers and stalkers. Robert Frost's "The Star-splitter" (1923) has a man buy "a good glass for six hundred dollars" for watching stars. In sporting writing, a stag is seen "through a glass." The same habit of calling optics simply glass carries over into the hunter's verb for scanning. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Robert Frost wrote "The Star-splitter". rpo.library.utoronto.ca
    • The poem's original publication year is 1923. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
    • The poem describes a man buying a telescope for six hundred dollars for stargazing, using the quoted wording. gutenberg.org
    • Sporting writing describes stags being seen "through a glass." en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    fit panesverbtransitive

    To fit with glass or enclose in glass, as a window, wall or display.

    After the break-in, the jeweler glassed in every display counter along the front of the store.

    The architects decided to glass the entire south wall, filling the living room with afternoon light.

    UsageOften with in: glassed in the counters, glass in a porch.

    Similarglaze

14. 14
    backboardnouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

    In basketball, the backboard, especially the transparent board mounted behind the rim.

    The forward used the glass to bank in a tough angled layup.

    He grabbed the rebound right off the glass and pushed the ball upcourt.

    UsageLives in phrases with off: a rebound off the glass, a shot banked off the glass.

    Similarbackboard

15. 15
    rink barriernouncountable or uncountable

    The transparent protective barrier that surrounds the playing surface of an ice hockey rink.

    A slap shot rang off the glass near the blue line.

    The defenseman checked his opponent hard into the glass.

    UsageNearly always the glass: a shot off the glass, checked into the glass.

    Note

    Ice hockey's counterpart to the basketball backboard sense: a clear barrier named for its traditional material, except that here it rings nearly the whole rink. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The hockey barrier is clear and traditionally made of glass, explaining its material-based name. patents.google.com
    • The protective barrier extends around nearly the whole rink, with an exception in front of the players’ benches. blob.iihf.com
16. 16
    scan (binoculars)verbtransitive

    To scan or examine something at a distance through an optical instrument such as binoculars.

    The guide glassed the slope for bighorn sheep before the climb.

    Birders often glass the marsh from the observation tower.

    UsageTakes a place as its object: glass the slope, glass a ridge.

    Similarscan, survey

    Note

    The hunter's and birder's verb, akin to the older word for a telescope in calling optics glass. It also has its own small family. Field & Stream (2000) speaks of glassing as the activity and of glassers as the people who do it, often for long hours with a tripod. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Field & Stream is cited as using glassing in 2000. en.wiktionary.org
    • The cited passage uses glassers for people scanning with binoculars and describes their use of tripods. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    sand timernounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    An hourglass; a sand-filled instrument used to measure the passage of time.

    Were my Wiues Liuer / Infected (as her life) ſhe would not liue / The running of one Glaſſe.

    c. 1610, William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”

    Note

    A word that faded with the timepiece it named. Once the hourglass was simply the glass, and a stretch of time could be told by its sand. Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale measures a life by "the running of one glass." Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Glass formerly meant an hourglass; this sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
    • The timepiece declined in everyday use. en.wikipedia.org
    • An hourglass measures elapsed time through flowing sand. en.wikipedia.org
    • Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale contains the quoted phrase about a lifespan; Leontes speaks it about his wife in Act 1, scene 2. folger.edu
18. 18
    hit (bar fight)verbcolloquialUKtransitive

    To strike someone, especially in the face, with a drinking glass, intending to cause injury.

    He glassed a rival supporter in the crowd after the final whistle.

    Drunken patrons sometimes glass one another over trivial arguments.

    UsageOften passive with get: someone got glassed.

    Note

    British slang for an ugly kind of assault, and its most common shape is passive, with get: someone got glassed. That construction keeps it colloquial, as when a bouncer in John Godber's Bouncers (1987) reports, "Couple of punks got glassed." Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • John Godber wrote Bouncers. en.wiktionary.org
    • Bouncers was first published in 1987. api.pageplace.de
    • A bouncer reports the assault in the play; the speaker is Les. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    resin coatingverbtransitiveabbreviationclipping

    Clipping of fibreglass: to cover, reinforce or build something with fiberglass and resin.

    He spent the weekend glassing the bottom of his old wooden canoe to stop the leaks.

    Most surfboard shapers glass their boards with fiberglass cloth and polyester resin.

    Note

    It is transitive, and what gets glassed is coated in fiberglass, the composite of fine spun-glass fibers bound in resin. Context separates it from the glazing verb with the same spelling. A glassed window has had panes fitted, while a glassed seam or deck has been covered in resin and fiber. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Fiberglass is a composite of glass fibers held in a resin matrix. en.wikipedia.org
20. 20
    weather gaugenouncountable or uncountable

    An instrument that measures atmospheric pressure, used to forecast changes in the weather.

    The captain watched the glass closely as the storm front approached.

    Farmers once consulted the glass each morning before heading to the fields.

    UsagePair it with rise and fall: the glass is falling.

    Similarbarometer

    Note

    Weather talk that treats the barometer as simply the glass, which rises and falls. Louis MacNeice turns the idiom into bleak comedy in "Bagpipe Music" (1938), warning that smashing the barometer will not keep bad weather off. A falling glass means pressure is dropping and the weather is turning.

21. 21
    verbtransitive or intransitive

    To make or become smooth and shiny like glass.

    Overnight the freezing rain glassed every branch and fence post, and by morning the whole yard glittered in the sun.

    The surfers waited on the beach for the evening wind to drop and the water to glass off.

    Similarglaze

22. 22
    reflectverbarchaicreflexive

    To reflect or mirror something, showing its image on a smooth surface.

    Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror.

    1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History.

    Where the Almighty's form glasses itself in tempests.

    1818, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

    Note

    Poetic and archaic, and usually reflexive: a thing glasses itself in water, light or storm. Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV (1818), has "the Almighty's form" that "glasses itself in tempests," and John Lothrop Motley writes of people "happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror." Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Byron's poem contains the quoted words about the Almighty's form reflecting itself in tempests. gutenberg.org
    • John Lothrop Motley wrote the quoted phrase about people reflecting themselves in a brilliant mirror. upload.wikimedia.org
23. 23
    verb

    To bombard a region so intensely (typically with nuclear or fusion weapons) that the terrain melts into glass.
24. 24
    verb

    To smooth or polish leather and similar materials by rubbing with a glass burnisher.