haze

Plural: hazes

Noun

• atmospheric moisture or dust or smoke that causes reduced visibility
• confusion characterized by lack of clarity
• Very fine solid particles (smoke, dust) or liquid droplets (moisture) suspended in the air, slightly limiting visibility. (Compare fog, mist.)
• A reduction of transparency of a clear gas or liquid.
• An analogous dullness on a surface that is ideally highly reflective or transparent.
• Any state suggestive of haze in the atmosphere, such as mental confusion or vagueness of memory.
• The degree of cloudiness or turbidity in a clear glass or plastic, measured in percent.
• Any substance causing turbidity in beer or wine.

Verb

Verb Forms: hazed, hazing, hazes

• To subject new members to humiliating or abusive initiation rituals.
• become hazy, dull, or cloudy
• harass by imposing humiliating or painful tasks, as in military institutions
• To be or become hazy, or thick with haze.
• To perform an unpleasant initiation ritual upon a usually non-consenting individual, especially freshmen to a closed community such as a college fraternity or military unit.
• To oppress or harass by forcing to do hard and unnecessary work.
• In a rodeo, to assist the bulldogger by keeping (the steer) running in a straight line.
• To use aversive stimuli on (a wild animal, such as a bear) to encourage it to keep its distance from humans.

Examples

• Some Words With Friends players HAZE their opponents with long, obscure words.
• The furniture has a haze, possibly from some kind of wax.
• The soap left a persistent haze on the drinking glasses.

Synonyms

daze, fog

Anagrams of haze