breeze
Plural: breezes
Noun
- a slight wind (usually refreshing)
- "the breeze was cooled by the lake"
- any undertaking that is easy to do
- A light, gentle wind.
- Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult.
- Wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.
- An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel.
- A brief workout for a racehorse.
- A gadfly; a horsefly; a strong-bodied dipterous insect of the family Tabanidae.
- Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on Clinker.
Verb
Verb Forms: breezed, breezing, breezes
- To move in a casual, swift, or confident manner.
- blow gently and lightly
- "It breezes most evenings at the shore"
- to proceed quickly and easily
- To move casually, in a carefree manner.
- To blow gently.
- 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.
- To swim near the surface of the water, causing ripples in the surface.
- To buzz.
Examples
- After studying Latin, Spanish was a breeze.
- She would breeze through her turns, playing words almost instantly.
- The breeze rustled the papers on her desk.
- The discovery produced a breeze.
Origin / 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”).
Synonyms
air, child's play, cinch, duck soup, gentle wind, picnic, piece of cake, pushover, snap, walkover, zephyr, cakewalk, doddle, easy thing, walk in the park, wind
Scrabble Score: 17
breeze: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordbreeze: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
breeze: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary