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breeze

noun
/bɹiːz/

Etymology

From the earlier (nautical) term brise, brize (“breeze”), from Middle English brees (“wind”). Ultimate origin obscure. Variously supposed to derive from a Germanic source like Saterland Frisian Briese (“breeze”), West Frisian brys (“a cool wind”), Dutch bries (“breeze”), early Dutch brysen (“to blow cool and fresh”), or from Spanish brisa (“northeast wind”). The earliest attestations are in Middle English brees (1460), Catalan brisa, and Italian brezza (all in 15th century), with Spanish (1504) and Portuguese briza (16th century) following closely after. The aforementioned Dutch cognates and French brise, however, are attested later than the term in English. The only internal hypothesis for any of those languages is a modification of Old Occitan bisa (“strong wind”), which is not widely accepted. Compare also Albanian breshër (“hail”).

  1. derived from *bʰerem-✻ — “to make a noise, buzz, hum”
  2. inherited from *bremusī✻ — “gadfly”
  3. inherited from brēosa
  4. inherited from brese

Definitions

  1. A light, gentle wind.

    • The breeze rustled the papers on her desk.
    • Into a gradual calm the breezes sink.

  2. Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult.

    • After studying Latin, Spanish was a breeze.
    • The eight-minute connection to East Midlands Railway is a breeze. The train is 170208, its First Class downrated, so I enjoy the wider seats for the hour to Ely, where I arrive a couple of minutes early.

  3. Wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.

  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. An excited or ruffled state of feeling

      An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel.

      • The discovery produced a breeze.

    2. A brief workout for a racehorse.

    3. To move casually, in a carefree manner.

      • Resting most of their first-choice players for Sunday's vital Euro 2024 qualifier against Croatia, Wales started with four debutants and breezed into an early lead thanks to headers by captain Ben Davies and Kieffer Moore.

    4. To blow gently.

      • She's sitting opposite a window that's gently breezing into her face, wafting her hair into cover-girl perfection ...

    5. To take a horse on a light run in order to understand the running characteristics of the…

      To take a horse on a light run in order to understand the running characteristics of the horse and to observe it while under motion.

    6. To swim near the surface of the water, causing ripples in the surface.

      • The first was a school of medium-sized ( 10-pound average ) fish that breezed frequently but bit poorly.
      • The Queen Mary stood by while a speedboat moved ahead of a breezing school of tuna to deploy the sound projector and a sonobuoy (Figure 6).
      • An intermediate line has its place when chasing breezing tuna that are moving at mach speed on the surface.

    7. A gadfly

      A gadfly; a horsefly; a strong-bodied dipterous insect of the family Tabanidae.

    8. To buzz.

    9. Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on…

      Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on Clinker.

    10. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

bat the breeze, bay breeze, breeze-block, breezefly, breezeless, breezelike, breezen, breezeway, breezy, coke breeze, fresh breeze, gentle breeze, land breeze, light breeze, mackerel breeze, Malibu bay breeze, moderate breeze, Morning Breeze, nightbreeze, seabreeze, sea breeze, shoot the breeze, split the breeze, strong breeze, upbreeze, breeze off, breeze past, breezer, breeze through, breeze up

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for breeze. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA