glide Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a vowellike sound that serves as a consonant
    semivowel.
  2. noun the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it
    slide; coast.
    • his slide didn't stop until the bottom of the hill
    • the children lined up for a coast down the snowy slope
  3. noun the activity of flying a glider
    gliding; soaring; sailing; sailplaning.
  4. verb move smoothly and effortlessly
  5. verb fly in or as if in a glider plane
  6. verb cause to move or pass silently, smoothly, or imperceptibly

WordNet

Glide noun
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) The glede or kite.
Glide intransitive verb
Etymology
AS. glidan; akin to D. glijden, OHG. glitan, G. gleiten, Sw. glida, Dan. glide, and prob. to E. glad.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Glided; present participle & verbal noun Gliding
Definitions
  1. To move gently and smoothly; to pass along without noise, violence, or apparent effort; to pass rapidly and easily, or with a smooth, silent motion, as a river in its channel, a bird in the air, a skater over ice.
    The river glideth at his own sweet will. Wordsworth.
  2. (Phon.) To pass with a glide, as the voice.
Glide noun
Definitions
  1. The act or manner of moving smoothly, swiftly, and without labor or obstruction.
    They prey at last ensnared, he dreadful darts, With rapid glide, along the leaning line. Thomson.
    Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself, And with indented glides did slip away. Shak.
  2. (Phon.) A transitional sound in speech which is produced by the changing of the mouth organs from one definite position to another, and with gradual change in the most frequent cases; as in passing from the begining to the end of a regular diphthong, or from vowel to consonant or consonant to vowel in a syllable, or from one component to the other of a double or diphthongal consonant (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 19, 161, 162). Also (by Bell and others), the vanish (or brief final element) or the brief initial element, in a class of diphthongal vowels, or the brief final or initial part of some consonants (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 18, 97, 191). ✍ The on-glide of a vowel or consonant is the glidemade in passing to it, the off-glide, one made in passing from it. Glides of the other sort are distinguished as initial or final, or fore-glides and after-glides. For voice-glide, see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 17, 95.

Webster 1913