GLOSS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Gloss

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/glɔs/ Listen

noun

Gloss n.

Brightness or luster of a body proceeding from a smooth surface; polish; as, the gloss of silk; cloth is calendered to give it a gloss. "It is no part... to set on the face of this cause any fairer gloss than the naked truth doth afford."

A specious appearance; superficial quality or show. "To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm than all the gloss of art."

Gloss n.

A foreign, archaic, technical, or other uncommon word requiring explanation. (Obs.)

An interpretation, consisting of one or more words, interlinear or marginal; an explanatory note or comment; a running commentary. "All this, without a gloss or comment, He would unriddle in a moment." "Explaining the text in short glosses."

A false or specious explanation.

verb

Gloss v. t. (past & past part. glossed; pres. part. glossing) To give a superficial luster or gloss to; to make smooth and shining; as, to gloss cloth. "The glossed and gleamy wave."

Gloss v. t.

To render clear and evident by comments; to illustrate; to explain; to annotate.

To give a specious appearance to; to render specious and plausible; to palliate by specious explanation. "You have the art to gloss the foulest cause."

Gloss v. i.

To make comments; to comment; to explain.

To make sly remarks, or insinuations.

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Etymology of 'Gloss'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gloss" Quotes from Famous Books

... be firm ground. He waded toward wallowing. This is a perilous way of living and the sad little end of Euphemia, flushed and coughing, left him no doubt in many ways still more exposed to the temptations of the sentimental byway and the emotional gloss. Happily this is a book about Lady Harman and not an exhaustive monograph upon Mr. Brumley. We will at least leave him the refuge of ...

— The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... much of a blunt 'true born Englishman'. There was a stratum of common clay under the rock of marble. He was voraciously fond of good eating; and he had a great deal of that quality called humour, which gives an oiliness and a gloss to every other quality. ...

— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell

... and disinterested, and yet he could not resist the temptation to be generous to his own flesh and blood at the expense of another. The contest within him made him miserable; but the devil and mammon were too strong for him, particularly coming as they did, half hidden beneath the gloss of parental affection. There was little of the Roman about the earl, and he could not condemn his own son; so he fumed and fretted, and twisted himself about in the easy chair in his dingy book-room, and passed long hours in trying to persuade himself that ...

— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... When this has dried, it should be sanded lightly and then one or two coats of wax should be properly applied and polished. Directions for waxing are upon the cans in which the wax is bought. A beautiful dull gloss so much sought by finishers of modern furniture will be the result ...

— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... go away!" she cried, throwing up one arm, and thereby pushing back her gray bonnet, and exhibiting some of the gloss of her light brown hair. "Can't ...

— The House of Martha • Frank R. Stockton

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