Library / English Dictionary

GLIDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The activity of flying a glider

Synonyms:

glide; gliding; sailing; sailplaning; soaring

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Example:

the children lined up for a coast down the snowy slope

Synonyms:

coast; glide; slide

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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:

A vowellike sound that serves as a consonant

Synonyms:

glide; semivowel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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'))

 II. (verb) 

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:

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)

Sense 3

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She could do nothing but glide in quietly and look at him; but when able to talk or be talked to, or read to, Edmund was the companion he preferred.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Measuring approximately 13 inches in length, Ambopteryx would have lived in the trees of the Jurassic period and used its wings to glide through the air, rather than for powered flight.

(Second Bat-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Healthy cartilage helps you move by allowing your bones to glide over each other.

(Cartilage Disorders, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

These findings support the hypothesis flight could have evolved up from the ground, in contrast to models in which active flapping flight evolved after gliding, a passive form of flight.

(Scientific study suggests dinosaurs flapped their wings as they ran, Wikinews)

By this time the schooner and her little consort were gliding pretty swiftly through the water; indeed, we had already fetched up level with the camp-fire.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He dived out of the galley door, or glided rather, with a swiftness and smoothness of gait that struck me as being not so much cat-like as oily.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A gliding joint between the distal ends of the tibia and fibula and the proximal end of the talus.

(Ankle Joint, NCI Thesaurus)

The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses, or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider labyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a child and leave her screaming.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I heard a roar from behind us, saw the gliding lines of windows with staring faces and waving handkerchiefs, and then we were off the stones and on to the good white road which curved away in front of us, with the sweep of the green downs upon either side.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A pat and a rub around the ears from the man, and a more prolonged caressing from the woman, and he was away down the trail in front of them, gliding effortlessly over the ground in true wolf fashion.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)