GLIDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does glide mean? 

• GLIDE (noun)
  The noun GLIDE has 3 senses:

1. a vowellike sound that serves as a consonant

2. the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it

3. the activity of flying a glider

  Familiarity information: GLIDE used as a noun is uncommon.

• GLIDE (verb)
  The verb GLIDE has 3 senses:

1. move smoothly and effortlessly

2. fly in or as if in a glider plane

3. cause to move or pass silently, smoothly, or imperceptibly

  Familiarity information: GLIDE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GLIDE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A vowellike sound that serves as a consonant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

glide; semivowel

Hypernyms ("glide" is a kind of...):

phone; sound; speech sound ((phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "glide"):

palatal (a semivowel produced with the tongue near the palate (like the initial sound in the English word 'yeast'))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

coast; glide; slide

Context example:

the children lined up for a coast down the snowy slope

Hypernyms ("glide" is a kind of...):

motion; move; movement (the act of changing location from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "glide"):

sideslip; skid; slip (an unexpected slide)

snowboarding (the act of sliding down a snow-covered slope while standing on a snowboard)

Derivation:

glide (move smoothly and effortlessly)

glide (cause to move or pass silently, smoothly, or imperceptibly)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The activity of flying a glider

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

glide; gliding; sailing; sailplaning; soaring

Hypernyms ("glide" is a kind of...):

flight; flying (an instance of traveling by air)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "glide"):

hang gliding (gliding in a hang glider)

paragliding; parasailing (gliding in a parasail)

Derivation:

glide (fly in or as if in a glider plane)

• GLIDE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they glide    ... he / she / it glides   
Past simple: glided   
Past participle: glided   
-ing form: gliding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move smoothly and effortlessly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "glide" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "glide"):

skid; slew; slide; slip; slue (move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner)

coast (move effortlessly; by force of gravity)

skitter (glide easily along a surface)

snake (move smoothly and sinuously, like a snake)

skate (move along on skates)

plane; skim (travel on the surface of water)

surf; surfboard (ride the waves of the sea with a surfboard)

body-surf (ride the crest of a wave without a surfboard)

snowboard (glide down a snow-covered slope while standing on a board)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The cars glide down the avenue

Also:

glide by (pass by)

Derivation:

glide (the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it)

glider (aircraft supported only by the dynamic action of air against its surfaces)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fly in or as if in a glider plane

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "glide" is one way to...):

aviate; fly; pilot (operate an airplane)

Domain category:

air; air travel; aviation (travel via aircraft)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "glide"):

kite (soar or fly like a kite)

sailplane; soar (fly a plane without an engine)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

glide (the activity of flying a glider)

glider (aircraft supported only by the dynamic action of air against its surfaces)

gliding (the activity of flying a glider)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to move or pass silently, smoothly, or imperceptibly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "glide" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They glide the car down the avenue

Derivation:

glide (the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it)

 Context examples 

If you are attached, you may have an outstanding Valentine’s Day when the moon will glide in your opposite sign of Scorpio.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The man laughed at this; and White Fang slunk away to the sheltering woods, his head turned to observe as he glided softly over the ground.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She dropped her thick black veil over her face and glided from the room.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Rosa Dartle glided, as we went in, from another part of the room and stood behind her chair.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Milverton had glided as quick as a rat to the side of the room and stood with his back against the wall.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As Buck slid along with the obscureness of a gliding shadow, his nose was jerked suddenly to the side as though a positive force had gripped and pulled it.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

They had been talking of Bonnivard, as they glided past Chillon, and of Rousseau, as they looked up at Clarens, where he wrote his Heloise.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Do not ask me,” cried I, putting my hands before my eyes, for I thought I saw the dreaded spectre glide into the room; “he can tell. Oh, save me! Save me!”

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A species of Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, bacterium in the phylum Bacteroidetes that are motile by gliding.

(Flavobacterium, NCI Thesaurus)

No; moonlight was still, and this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)