Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The white of an egg.
- noun A sizing or glaze made of egg white.
- noun A viscous substance resembling egg white.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To smear with glair or the white of an egg; smear with a viscous substance.
- noun The white of an egg, used as varnish to preserve painting, and as a size to retain gold in bookbinding and in gilding.
- noun Any viscous transparent substance resembling the white of an egg; hence, any viscous substance.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The white of egg. It is used as a size or a glaze in bookbinding, for pastry, etc.
- noun Any viscous, transparent substance, resembling the white of an egg.
- noun A broadsword fixed on a pike; a kind of halberd.
- transitive verb To smear with the white of an egg.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Egg-white , especially as used in various industrial preparations. - noun Any
viscous ,slimy substance. - verb To
smear with egg-white.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Then the fox started across the steel-gray glair, picking his steps that he might have a firm foothold.
Kings in Exile Charles George Douglas Roberts 1901
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A coating of glair or varnish is found to some extent to protect leather from adverse outside influences, but, unfortunately, both glair and varnish tend rather to harden leather than to keep it flexible, and they fail just where failure is most serious, that is at the joints.
Bookbinding, and the Care of Books A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians Douglas Cockerell 1894
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In opening and shutting, any coat of glair or varnish that has become hard will crack, and expose the leather of the joint and back.
Bookbinding, and the Care of Books A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians Douglas Cockerell 1894
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As it has not done so, are we then really, as many contend, the highest expression of the progress accomplished, throughout the ages, by the first atom of glair expanded into a cell?
Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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But safety lies within; and behold the atom of animated glair embarking on its struggle with the flint.
The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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It begins with zero in the glair of a cell and ascends until we come to the mighty brain of a Newton.
The Mason-Bees Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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The strength and litheness of a clown cannot compare with those of this budding flesh, this hardly coagulated glair.
The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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Crawling up the sides, the Snails imprisoned in my apparatus sometimes reach the top, which is closed with a glass pane, and fix themselves to it by means of a speck of glair.
The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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Its appearance was very beautiful; firm and glair; varying in color, and glistening like polished porphyry.
A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States; With Remarks on Their Economy 1856
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She lifted the scissors the her chest intending to kil her self but the creature stilfed that with a glair.
tallpaul commented on the word glair
Found in the poem 'The Glair' by Robert Robertson from his collection The Swithering
December 5, 2006