GLASSY (glassier, glassiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: glassier    , glassiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does glassy mean? 

• GLASSY (adjective)
  The adjective GLASSY has 3 senses:

1. resembling glass in smoothness and shininess and slickness

2. (used of eyes) lacking liveliness

3. (of ceramics) having the surface made shiny and nonporous by fusing a vitreous solution to it

  Familiarity information: GLASSY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GLASSY (adjective)

Comparative: glassier   
Superlative: glassiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resembling glass in smoothness and shininess and slickness

Context example:

the pavement was...glassy with water

Similar:

smooth (having a surface free from roughness or bumps or ridges or irregularities)

Derivation:

glass (a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(used of eyes) lacking liveliness

Synonyms:

glassy; glazed

Context example:

his eyes were glazed over with boredom

Similar:

empty (holding or containing nothing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of ceramics) having the surface made shiny and nonporous by fusing a vitreous solution to it

Synonyms:

glassy; vitreous; vitrified

Context example:

hard vitreous china used for plumbing fixtures

Similar:

glazed; shiny (having a shiny surface or coating)

Domain category:

ceramics (the art of making and decorating pottery)

 Context examples 

Curious glassy gray eyes they have, under red tufts, and they just sat and gloated and gloated.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A malignant epithelial neoplasm composed of atypical cells with glassy cytoplasm.

(Glassy Cell Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

His eyes were half closed, and the surface of them was glassy.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A glassy or crystalline form of silicon dioxide.

(Crystalline Silica Quartz, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

An abnormally large hepatocyte with eosinophilic or pale, glassy cytoplasm and peripherally displaced nucleus.

(Ground Glass Hepatocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

Gemistocytes are round to oval astrocytes with abundant, glassy, non-fibrillary cytoplasm which appears to displace the dark, angulated nucleus to the periphery of the cell.

(Gemistocytic Astrocytoma, NCI Thesaurus/Adapted from WHO)

He tried to turn his head; but even with the effort his eyes seemed to grow glassy again so I gently put it back.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

They paused, however, at the bridge, and, leaning their elbows upon the stonework, they stood looking down at their own faces in the glassy stream, and at the swift flash of speckled trout against the tawny gravel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Magma located under areas that include the Yellowstone region and the western margin of North and South America can erupt violently, spewing vast quantities of ash into the air, followed by slower flows of glassy, viscous magma.

(Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone may have been more active in the past, NSF)

Sweeping over the glassy surface was a great flotilla of canoes coming straight for the shore upon which we stood.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)