glue

CEFRB1

/ɡluː/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

01
noun
A sticky substance used to join things together.
02
verb
To join things together with a sticky substance.

Examples

Some furniture is put together with glue.
This fluid can be substituted for glue.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

A viscid secretion on the surface of certain plants.
Anything that binds two things or people together.
A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.

More examples

In context

This sticky liquid can be substituted for glue.
His eyes were glued to the screen.
I need to glue the chair-leg back into place.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She applied some blank to the broken vase to stick the pieces back together.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

The wasp has always made the paper from which it constructs its nest, by uniting vegetable fibres with glue, while man was vexing himself with attempts to write on the bark of trees or a waxen or metallic table.
1832 July 26, “Review: Habits of Insects”, in North American Review, volume 35, number 76, →JSTOR, page 217
During the next few days, while the meat dried, they were both busy. They finished the bowl boat and coated it with the glue Jondalar made by boiling down the hooves, bone, and hide scraps.
1990, Jean Marie Auel, chapter 9, in The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children), New York: Random House, published 2010, →ISBN, page 145
[…] The flesh [of the mistletoe berry] is sticky, and forms strings and ribbons between my thumb and forefinger. For the mistletoe, this viscous goop – and by the way, viscous comes to English from viscum – is crucial. The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.
2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, page 7]”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2014
"This is how the whiskers went, I think. Cut long strips of paper—I'm just using a second paper bag here—and run the flat edge of the scissors down the strip to make it curl. Voilà. Then glue each whisker, like so, next to the nose, four on a side." She was watching. I glued quickly so I wouldn't lose her.
1987, Josephine Humphreys, Rich in Love, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 236
Children need help in understanding such things as how to control a paintbrush, how to cut efficiently, how to glue with care and dexterity, and even how to manage a sponge during a cleanup task.
1994, Sylvia G. Feinburg, Mary Mindess, Eliciting Children's Full Potential: Designing & Evaluating Developmentally Based Programs for Young Children, Pacific Grove, C.A.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 123

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Origin

noun

From Middle English glew, glue, from Old French glu (“glue, birdlime”), from Late Latin glūs (stem glūt-), from Latin glūten. Related to clay. Partially displaced native Old English līm (“glue”) and ġelīman (“to glue”) (whence modern lime).

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

She applied some blank— to the broken vase to stick the pieces back together.

Nearby

Origin

noun

She applied some blank to the broken vase to stick the pieces back together.