glove
/ɡlʌv
/- Using it with cold fingers in thick gloves, I found it rather fiddly.
- Problem is I neglected to buy rubber gloves so my fingers are all tingly and I have the cleanest nails known to mankind.
- His nose was freezing, and the cold was penetrating his gloves, working into his fingers.
Synonyms
- He always had his baseball glove hitched to his side and always welcomed a game of catch.
- The last time he used a glove in a major league game was in 2001 when he played five innings as a first baseman.
- Last year, he had little trouble gloving grounders, but his throws were erratic.
- Fending the ball off his face, he could only glove the ball to the wicket keeper.
- He continued his attack, but on 85 he gloved the ball into his face and had to retire hurt.
Phrases
fit someone like a glove
the gloves are off (or with the gloves off or take the gloves off)
Derivatives
gloveless
- The catcher then puts his gloveless hand between his legs and flashes the sign to signal the next pitch.
- A hand grabbed hers in the dark, warm and gloveless, and she pulled back instinctively.
- During its pioneer beginnings, baseball was a gloveless sport.
Origin
Old English glōf, of Germanic origin.
Old English glōf is Germanic in origin. From the Middle Ages gloves carried strong social symbolism. Gloves could be used to challenge someone to combat (see gauntlet) or to confer office. Fine-quality gloves were a sign of status and often given as presents. To fit like a glove and hand in glove both date from the late 18th century although the latter was in existence earlier as hand and glove. The expression to take the gloves off meaning ‘to use no mercy’ dates from the 1920s, although ‘to handle without gloves’—the opposite of with kid gloves (the softest kind)—dates from the early 19th century. The maxim to rule with an iron fist or hand in a velvet glove has been ascribed to several rulers including Napoleon.