Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Gaze?

\Gaze\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Gazed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Gazing}.] [OE. gasen, akin to dial. Sw. gasa, cf. Goth. us-gaisjan to terrify, us-geisnan to be terrified. Cf. {Aghast}, {Ghastly}, {Ghost}, {Hesitate}.] To fixx the eyes in a steady and earnest look; to look with eagerness or curiosity, as in admiration, astonishment, or with studious attention. Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? --Acts i. 11. Syn: To gape; stare; look. Usage: To {Gaze}, {Gape}, {Stare}. To gaze is to look with fixed and prolonged attention, awakened by excited interest or elevated emotion; to gape is to look fixedly, with open mouth and feelings of ignorant wonder; to stare is to look with the fixedness of insolence or of idiocy. The lover of nature gazes with delight on the beauties of the landscape; the rustic gapes with wonder at the strange sights of a large city; the idiot stares on those around with a vacant look.
\Gaze\, v. t. To view with attention; to gaze on . [R.] And gazed a while the ample sky. --Milton.
\Gaze\, n. 1. A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention. With secret gaze Or open admiration him behold. --Milton. 2. The object gazed on. Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze. --Milton. {At gaze} (a) (Her.) With the face turned directly to the front; -- said of the figures of the stag, hart, buck, or hind, when borne, in this position, upon an escutcheon. (b) In a position expressing sudden fear or surprise; -- a term used in stag hunting to describe the manner of a stag when he first hears the hounds and gazes round in apprehension of some hidden danger; hence, standing agape; idly or stupidly gazing. I that rather held it better men should perish one by one, Than that earth should stand at gaze like Joshua's moon in Ajalon! --Tennyson.