breeze1
/briːz
/noun
1A gentle wind: tantalizing cooking smells wafted on the evening breeze...
- The wind blew not just gentle breezes but full-blown bone chilling winds.
- Sea gulls cried overhead and gentle breezes blew from the lake.
- All he wants is someplace warm, where palm trees blow in balmy breezes along a gentle, rolling surf.
Synonyms
gentle wind, breath of wind, puff of air, current of air, flurry of air, gust
informal blow
technical light air
literary zephyr
rare cat's paw
1.1 [with modifier] A wind of force 2 to 6 on the Beaufort scale (4-27 knots or 7-50 km/h).The weather for this ASR patrol was 75 degrees and sunny with a 10 knot breeze from the southwest....
- Convection cells on Earth cause thermals, breezes, thunderstorms and other weather patterns.
- The winds did cooperate in some regard finally covering the complete race area with a 4-6 knot sea breeze.
2 informal A thing that is easy to do or accomplish: travelling through London was a breeze...
- It was a breeze to make and easy to love, a simply good nosh.
- Opt for someone who makes even custom printing a breeze to accomplish.
- Shortcuts can make a holiday meal a breeze to complete.
Synonyms
easy task, easy job, child's play, nothing, five-finger exercise, gift, walkover, sinecure
informal doddle, walk in the park, piece of cake, picnic, money for old rope, money for jam, cinch, sitter, kids' stuff, cushy job/number, doss, cakewalk, pushover
North American informal duck soup, snap
Australian/New Zealand informal bludge, snack
South African informal a piece of old tackie
British vulgar slang a piece of piss
dated snip
verb [no object, with adverbial of direction] informal
1Come or go in a casual or light-hearted manner: Roger breezed into her office...
- He pressed a chaste kiss on her cheek and breezed out of her office.
- Then Professor Kennedy breezed past them and out of the office.
- One afternoon, breezing out the door, he told her, ‘See you in a couple of hours.’
Synonyms
saunter, stroll, sail, cruise, walk casually;
glide, drift, float
1.1 [no object] (breeze through) Deal with something with apparently casual ease: Milan had breezed through their first defence of the European Cup...
- White breezed through the pre-experiment tests with great ease.
- Jen breezed through her third and fourth period with the same ease that she had the rest of the day.
- After breezing through the preliminary heat, Carrington moved on to the semi-finals.
Origin
Mid 16th century: probably from Old Spanish and Portuguese briza 'NE wind' (the original sense in English).
A breeze was originally a north or northeast wind, especially a trade wind on the Atlantic seaboard of the West Indies and the Caribbean coast of South America. This is the meaning of the Spanish and Portuguese word briza from which breeze probably derived in the 16th century. In the following century it began to refer to any gentle wind. See also brazier
Rhymes
breeze2
/briːz/noun [mass noun]
Small cinders mixed with sand and cement to make breeze blocks.
Origin
Late 16th century: from French braise, (earlier) brese 'live coals'.