glue
/ɡluː
/noun [mass noun]
An adhesive substance used for sticking objects or materials together: waterproof glue figurative what is the glue that holds companies together?...
- Adhesives and glues are substances that are capable of bonding two solid materials together at their surfaces.
- The glue supplied to stick nail on nail would do a sterling job of adhering the girders of the Forth Bridge together.
- Then designate him as the control, and stick to him like glue for the rest of the night.
Synonyms
adhesive, fixative, gum, paste, cement;
epoxy, epoxy resin, sealant, size, glair;
North American mucilage
North American informal stickum
verb (glues, gluing or glueing, glued) [with object and adverbial]
1Fasten or join with or as if with glue: the wood is cut into pieces which are then glued together...
- My eyelids are glued together, and I feel like I'm doing everything in slow motion.
- Tender keyboard melodies and skeletal guitar rhythms are glued together in darkness.
- Meticulously gluing them together piece by piece, Kaufman builds up feathered layers and leaflike clusters of paint.
Synonyms
stick, gum, paste;
affix, fix, cement, epoxy
rare agglutinate, conglutinate
1.1 (be glued to) informal Be paying very close attention to (something, especially a television): I was glued to the telly when the Olympics were on...
- For what seemed like hours on the big day we were glued to our television sets, with only cubes of cheese and pickled onions skewered onto toothpicks to keep our strength up.
- In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians were glued to radio and television broadcasts.
- In cities such as Prague, expatriates were glued to televisions in bars, bemused locals looking on.
Synonyms
be riveted to/by, be gripped by, be hypnotized by, be mesmerized by;
be fixed on, be fastened on, be pinned to, be locked on
Derivatives
glue-like
- This may be serous or, in chronic cases, thick, mucoid and glue-like.
- Obviously its sticky, glue-like qualities are what makes it so useful.
- Because the tongue of a young woodpecker has a smooth tip, the sticky, glue-like saliva is used to pull grubs out of their galleries.
gluey
/ adjective ...- The smell of the lemon zest, the squishy feel of the batter when she made me stick my hands in the mix as she would pour in the beaten eggs, then the flour, then more lemon peel, and I would whine that dough, at first, was gluey and stuck to my hands.
- During the average 30-day life span of the louse, the female attaches 60 to 150 eggs, commonly called nits, to hair shafts near the scalp with a sticky, gluey substance.
- And these are enzymes that make up a gluey, sticky substance, known as glucan, and the bacteria make this from sugar.
glueyness
- It comes with a brown meaty reduction with an orange tang, which sits on that borderline between agreeable syrupyness and disagreeable glueyness, an addictive confit of softly sweated onions and pukka mash.
- Or if you want that gumbo-like glueyness, just slice the okra and cook it along with tomatoes, onions and garlic, stirring often.
- The polenta was light, sweet, and studded with corn kernels, without any of the glueyness or heaviness associated with most other polentas.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French glu (noun), gluer (verb), from late Latin glus, glut-, from Latin gluten.
Both glue and gluten (late 16th century) go back to gluten the Latin for ‘glue’, also found in agglutinate (mid 16th century).