breeze
pronunciation
How to pronounce breeze in British English:
UK [briːz]
How to pronounce breeze in American English:
US [briːz]
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- Noun:
- a slight wind (usually refreshing)
- any undertaking that is easy to do
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- Verb:
- blow gently and lightly
- to proceed quickly and easily
Word Origin
- breeze
- breeze: [16] Breeze has not always connoted ‘lightness’ or ‘gentleness’. Old Spanish briza, its probable source, meant ‘cold northeast wind’, and that is the meaning it originally had in English. The word was picked up through English-Spanish contact in Central and South America, and the fact that on the Atlantic coast of the area the onshore winds were from the east and northeast led in the 17th century to breeze being applied to any cool wind from the sea (as in ‘sea breezes’), and gradually to any light wind.The adjective breezy perhaps retains more of the word’s earlier ‘cold’ connotations. The breeze [18] of breezeblock is a completely different word, meaning ‘cinders’, and comes from French braise ‘live coals’, source also of English braise and brazier.
- breeze (n.)
- 1560s, "north or northeast wind," from Old Spanish briza "cold northeast wind;" in West Indies and Spanish Main, the sense shifting to "northeast trade wind," then "fresh wind from the sea." English sense of "gentle or light wind" is from 1620s. An alternative possibility is that the English word is from East Frisian brisen "to blow fresh and strong." The slang for "something easy" is American English, c. 1928.
- breeze (v.)
- "move briskly," 1904, from breeze (n.). Related: Breezed; breezing.
Example
- 1. The night breeze is on my face and body .
- 2. If everyone just used up to date versions either firefox or safari , browser testing would be a breeze .
- 3. The breeze flared the candle .
- 4. A slight breeze rustles the tan grass .
- 5. Paper lanterns fluttered in the breeze .