gaze

See also: Gaze, gazé, gāze, gāzē, gáže, and -gaze

English

Etymology

From Middle English gasen; akin to Swedish dialectal gasa and Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usgaisjan, “to terrify”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡeɪz/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæɪz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz
• Homophone: gays

Verb

gaze (third-person singular simple present gazes, present participle gazing, simple past and past participle gazed)

1. (intransitive) To stare intently or earnestly.

   They gazed at the stars for hours.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 1:11:

     Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Gerty MacDowell who was seated near her companions, lost in thought, gazing far away into the distance was, in very truth, as fair a specimen of winsome Irish girlhood as one could wish to see.

   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards Publishing, published 1940, page 64:

     She just sat there very straight, gazing across the moon-washed garden.

   • 1998, Michelangelo Antonioni, Unfinished Business: Screenplays, Scenerios, and Ideas, page xv:

     In fact, for Antonioni this gazing is probably the most fundamental of all cognitive activities[.]

2. (transitive, poetic) To stare at.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Strait toward Heav'n my wondring Eyes I turnd, / And gaz'd a while the ample Skie

   • 1970, David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World:

     I searched for form and land
     For years and years I roamed
     I gazed a gazeless stare.

Synonyms

• gape, stare, look

Troponyms

• (to stare intently): ogle

Derived terms

• at gaze
• begaze
• crystal-gazing
• foregaze
• gazer
• gazing ball

 

Translations

to stare intently or earnestly

• Bulgarian: вторачвам се (vtoračvam se)
• Catalan: fitar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 望 (mong⁶), 望住 (mong⁶ zyu⁶)

• Dutch: staren (nl), turen (nl)
• Finnish: tuijottaa (fi)
• French: fixer (fr)
• Galician: ollar (gl), deñar (gl), catar (gl), guipar, alurpiar
• Georgian: დაჟინებით ცქერა (dažinebit ckera), მზერა (mzera)
• German: starren (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀθρέω (athréō), θεάομαι (theáomai), ἀτενίζω (atenízō)

• Hebrew: שָׁזַף עַיִן m (shazáf 'ayín), הִבִּיט (he) (hibbít)
• Hungarian: bámul (hu)
• Indonesian: tataplah
• Italian: fissare (it)
• Latin: conspicio, tueor
• Maori: mōtoi, mātai, taumata, kekeho
• Middle English: gasen
• Occitan: agachar (oc), agaitar, espiar (oc)
• Portuguese: contemplar (pt)
• Romanian: privi (ro), holba (ro)
• Russian: разгля́дывать (ru) (razgljádyvatʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: dian-amhairc
• Spanish: observar (es)
• Zazaki: pawen

to stare at

• Bulgarian: взирам се (vziram se)
• Catalan: fitar (ca)
• Esperanto: rigardi (eo)
• Finnish: tuijottaa jotakin
• Georgian: მიშტერება (mišṭereba), ქცერა (kcera), ცქერა (ckera)
• German: anstarren (de)
• Italian: guardare (it), puntare gli occhi, volgere lo sguardo
• Maori: mōtoi
• Middle English: gasen
• Portuguese: contemplar (pt)
• Russian: вглядываться в (vgljadyvatʹsja v)
• Scottish Gaelic: dian-amhairc
• Spanish: mirar fijamente
• Zazaki: weynen

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} osservare (it), ^{(please verify)} fissare (it), ^{(please verify)} contemplare (it)

Noun

gaze (plural gazes)

1. A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

2. (archaic) The object gazed on.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 5”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Those howers that with gentle worke did frame / The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell.

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 11:

     Made of my Enemies the ſcorn and gaze;

3. (psychoanalysis) In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the relationship of the subject with the desire to look and awareness that one can be viewed.
   • 2003, Amelia Jones, The feminism and visual culture reader, page 35:

     She counters the tendency to focus on critical strategies of resisting the male gaze, raising the issue of the female spectator.

Derived terms

• female gaze
• foregaze
• gazehound
• male gaze
• Nancy Reagan gaze
• sidegaze

 

Translations

fixed look

• Bulgarian: втренчен поглед m (vtrenčen pogled)
• Esperanto: rigardo
• Finnish: tuijotus (fi)
• Georgian: მზერა (mzera), დაჟინებული ცქერა (dažinebuli ckera)
• Hungarian: tekintet (hu)
• Italian: occhiata (it) f
• Latin: obtutus m
• Persian: نگاه (fa) (negâh)
• Romanian: privire (ro) f
• Russian: при́стальный взгля́д (prístalʹnyj vzgljád)
• Scottish Gaelic: dian-amharc m
• Zazaki: bıpaw

object gazed on

• Zazaki: weyniyaye

Derived terms

• upgaze

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaz/ ~ /ɡɑz/
• Homophones: gaz, gazes, gazent

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Arabic قَزّ (qazz, “silk”)

Noun

gaze f (plural gazes)

1. gauze

Descendants

• → English: gauze
• → Danish: gaze
• → Dutch: gaas
• → German: Gaze
• → Polish: gaza
• → Russian: газ (gaz)
• → Scots: gais, gaes

Etymology 2

Verb

gaze

1. inflection of gazer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “gaze”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Verb

gaze

1. Alternative form of gasen

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.zi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.zi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.ze/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.zɨ/

• Rhymes: -azi, -azɨ
• Hyphenation: ga‧ze

Noun

gaze f (plural gazes)

1. gauze (thin fabric with open weave)
2. gauze (cotton fabric used as surgical dressing)

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡaze]

Noun

gaze n

1. indefinite plural of gaz