gaze

See also gazé, gāze, gāzē, and Gaze

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Akin to Swedish dial. gasa and Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usgasjan, “to terrify”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡeɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -eɪz

• Homophones: 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.
   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Chapter 13

     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.

   In fact, for Antonioni this gazing is probably the most fundamental of all cognitive activities ... (from Thinking in the Absence of Image)

   • Bible, Acts i. 11

     Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

2. (transitive, poetic) To stare at.
   • 1667: Strait toward Heav'n my wondring Eyes I turnd, / And gaz'd a while the ample Skie — John Milton, Paradise Lost (book VIII)

Synonyms

• gape, stare, look

Troponyms

• (to stare intently): ogle

Derived terms

• begaze

Translations

To stare intently or earnestly

• Dutch: staren (nl), turen (nl)
• Finnish: tuijottaa (fi)
• French: fixer (fr)
• German: anstarren (de)

• Hungarian: bámul (hu)
• Italian: fissare (it)
• Portuguese: contemplar (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: dian-amhairc (gd)

To stare at

• Portuguese: contemplar (pt)

• Scottish Gaelic: dian-amhairc (gd)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: osservare, fissare, contemplare

• Spanish: observar, mirar fijamente

Noun

gaze (plural gazes)

1. A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention.
2. (archaic) The object gazed on.
3. 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

• foregaze

Translations

A fixed look

• Finnish: tuijotus (fi)
• Hungarian: tekintet (hu)

• Scottish Gaelic: dian-amharc (gd) m

The object gazed on

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡaz/

Verb

gaze

1. first-person singular present indicative of gazer
2. third-person singular present indicative of gazer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of gazer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of gazer
5. second-person singular imperative of gazer