gel
Plural: gels
Noun
- a colloid in a more solid form than a sol
- a thin translucent membrane used over stage lights for color effects
- A semi-solid to almost solid colloid of a solid and a liquid, such as jelly, cheese or opal.
- Any gel intended for a particular cosmetic use, such as for styling the hair.
- A film of flexible transparent plastic (such as acetate, celluloid, or cellophane) suitable for making superimpositions or diapositives (image to overlay on other images, especially for overhead projectors); a digital virtual equivalent of this.
- A girl.
Verb
Verb Forms: gelled, gelling, gels
- To become or form into a jelly-like substance.
- become a gel
- "The solid, when heated, gelled"
- apply a styling gel to
- To apply (cosmetic) gel to (the hair, etc).
- To become a gel.
- To develop a rapport.
- To come together to form something; to cohere.
Examples
- He was a nice guy, and I got on OK with his friends, but the two of us never really gelled.
- The strategy began to GEL, and I saw a path to victory on the Words With Friends board.
- We put our ideas together and they eventually gelled into a saleable product.
Origin / Etymology
Coined by Thomas Graham in the mid 19th century as a clipping of gelatin, from French gélatine, from Italian gelatina, diminutive form of gelata (“iced”), from Latin gelata, past participle of gelo (“to freeze”), from gelu (“frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). For the meaning development compare with Russian сту́день (stúdenʹ, “aspic, jelly, gel”) related to студёный (studjónyj, “cold”).
Scrabble Score: 4
gel: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordgel: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
gel: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary