breeze

breeze¹

—breezeless, adj. —breezelike, adj.

/breez/, n., v., breezed, breezing.

n.

1. a wind or current of air, esp. a light or moderate one.

2. a wind of 4-31 mph (2-14 m/sec).

3. Informal. an easy task; something done or carried on without difficulty: Finding people to join in the adventure was a breeze.

4. Chiefly Brit. Informal. a disturbance or quarrel.

5. shoot or bat the breeze, Slang.

a. to converse aimlessly; chat.

b. to talk nonsense or exaggerate the truth: He likes to shoot the breeze, so don't take everything he says seriously.

v.i.

6. (of the wind) to blow a breeze (usually used impersonally with it as subject): It breezed from the west all day.

7. to move in a self-confident or jaunty manner: She breezed up to the police officer and asked for directions.

8. Informal. to proceed quickly and easily; move rapidly without intense effort (often fol. by along, into, or through): He breezed through the task. The car breezed along the highway.

v.t.

9. to cause to move in an easy or effortless manner, esp. at less than full speed: The boy breezed the horse around the track.

10. breeze in, Slang.

a. to win effortlessly: He breezed in with an election plurality of 200,000.

b. Also, breeze into or out. to move or act with a casual or careless attitude: He breezed out without paying attention to anyone.

11. breeze up, Atlantic States. to become windy.

[1555-65; earlier brize, brise north or northeast wind; cf. D bries, East Fris brîse, F brize, Sp, Pg, Catalan brisa, It brezza; orig. and path of transmission disputed]

Syn. 1. See wind¹.

breeze²

/breez/, n.

1. cinders, ash, or dust from coal, coke, or charcoal.

2. concrete, brick, or cinder block in which such materials form a component.

[1720-30; var. of dial. brays < F braise live coals, cinders; see BRAZE²]

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▪ meteorology

 air current designation on the Beaufort scale; it is weaker than a wind, which in turn is weaker than a gale. Breeze also denotes various local winds (e.g., sea breeze, land breeze, valley breeze, mountain breeze) generated by unequal diurnal heating and cooling of adjacent areas of the Earth's surface. These breezes are strongest in warm, clear, dry weather, when daytime insolation, or solar radiation, is most intense. They may be reinforced or prevented by winds of passing pressure systems.

      Land areas warm and cool more rapidly than do water bodies. For that reason, cooler, denser air often flows from water to land (sea or lake breeze) during the day, and from land to water (land breeze) at night. Because the temperature contrast is usually greater during the day in summer, the sea breeze is the stronger; it sometimes reduces maximum temperatures by 8° C (15° F) or more along a narrow coastal strip and greatly modifies the local climate.

      Similarly, a valley breeze is produced by rapid warming of the valley floor that causes the air to expand and flow up the slopes. The rising currents sometimes trigger thunderstorms over the mountains. Nighttime land-surface radiation cools the slopes, causing cooler, denser air to drain into the valley (mountain breeze). Usually light, a mountain breeze may become a violent, gusty wind when it is funnelled through a narrow gorge into which cold air has drained from many higher valleys. A glacier breeze is a draft of cold air that is cooled by contact with a glacier, descends along its edge, and then dies out within a short distance.

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