glaze

Formsglazes, glazing, glazed

Pluralglazes

1. 1
   apply a coatingverbtransitive

   To coat something with a glaze: a thin, smooth, usually glossy layer, as on pottery or food.

   Many potters glaze their bowls only after a first firing has hardened the clay.

   Glazing the pastry with beaten egg gives it a golden shine.

   UsageWith names the coating: pastry glazed with egg.

   Similarcoat

   Note

   One verb covers kitchen and studio alike: you glaze a doughnut or a ham just as you glaze a pot. In pottery the state of the ware matters, and Frank and Janet Hamer's The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques warns that an overfired biscuit has too little porosity for glazing, because the coating needs a surface that can soak it up. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Frank and Janet Hamer's The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques states that overfired biscuit has insufficient porosity for glazing. en.wiktionary.org
   • The porosity of biscuit ware helps it take up applied glaze. ms-kb.msd.unimelb.edu.au
2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A shiny coating put on food, such as a sugar syrup, egg wash or stock boiled down until thick.

   Brush the carrots with a maple glaze before roasting them.

   The lemon cake is finished with a thin sugar glaze that sets as it cools.

   Similarcoating

3. 3
   fit windowsverbtransitive

   To fit a window, door, frame, or building with panes of glass.

   The crew glazed the new library with tall panes that face the park.

   It costs more to glaze an old home because every frame is a different size.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The glassy coating on pottery or porcelain, or any material used to coat or color ware during glazing.

   A crackle glaze gives the plates their fine web of lines.

   The studio mixes its own glazes, using metal oxides for color.

   Similarenamel

   Note

   The word comes from glass, by way of Middle English glasen, and to a potter that is exactly what a glaze is: a thin coat of glass fused onto the clay in the kiln. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Glaze derives through Middle English glasen from glas, meaning glass. en.wiktionary.org
   • A ceramic glaze forms a thin glass layer fused onto the clay during kiln firing. en.wikipedia.org
5. 5
   eyes (bored)verbintransitive

   Of the eyes, to take on a dull, uninterested look.

   Her eyes glazed halfway through the quarterly sales report.

   Students' eyes glaze when a lecture runs past the hour.

   UsageOften with over: her eyes glazed over.

   Similardull

   Note

   The look signals boredom or inattention, where the plain "become glassy" sense can also cover the blank stare of fever or exhaustion.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Any smooth, transparent layer or coating on a surface.

   A glaze of oil on the puddle shimmered in every color.

   The windshield was covered with a greasy glaze that the wipers only smeared.

   Similarfilm, coating, sheen, layer

   Note

   A sheen on water, oil or glass falls under this broadest sense, free of any trade. Walt Whitman, in When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1865), calls the river's surface the flowing glaze, with a wind-dapple here and there, picturing moving water as a polished coat over the land. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Walt Whitman wrote When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. wwws.loc.gov
   • The poem was first published in 1865. en.wikipedia.org
   • The poem describes the river using the words “the flowing glaze” and “with a wind-dapple here and there.” gutenberg.org
7. 7
   nouncountable

   A layer of paint that is transparent or partly transparent.

   The portrait's skin tones were built up with glaze after glaze of thin oil color.

   A warm glaze over the gray wall gave the room a soft, aged look.

8. 8
   verbintransitive

   To take on a glazed or glassy surface or look.

   The windshield glazed over with ice while we were inside the restaurant, so we had to scrape it before driving home.

   Brake pads can glaze when they overheat on a long mountain descent, and then they barely grip.

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