haze

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Atmospheric moisture, dust, smoke, and vapor that diminishes visibility.
• noun A partially opaque covering.
• noun A vague or confused state of mind.
• intransitive verb To become misty or hazy; blur.
• transitive verb To persecute or harass with meaningless, difficult, or humiliating tasks.
• transitive verb To initiate, as into a college fraternity, by exacting humiliating performances from or playing rough practical jokes upon.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To drizzle.
• To be or become foggy or hazy.
• noun The aggregation of a countless multitude of extremely minute and even ultra-microscopic particles in the air, individually invisible, but producing in the aggregate an opaqueness of the atmosphere.
• To harass with labor; punish with unnecessary work, as a seaman.
• To play mischievous or abusive tricks on; try the pluck or temper of, especially by physical persecution, as lower-class students in a college or new-comers in an establishment of any kind.
• To frolic; lark.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun Light vapor or smoke in the air which more or less impedes vision, with little or no dampness; a lack of transparency in the air; hence, figuratively, obscurity; dimness.
• noun A state of confusion, uncertainty, or vagueness of thought or perception.
• intransitive verb To be hazy, or thick with haze.
• transitive verb To harass by exacting unnecessary, disagreeable, or difficult work.
• transitive verb To harass or annoy by playing abusive or shameful tricks upon; to humiliate by practical jokes; -- used esp. of college students, as an initiation rite into a fraternity or other group.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb US, informal To perform an unpleasant initiation ritual upon a usually non-consenting individual, especially freshmen to a closed community such as a college or military unit.
• verb To oppress or harass by forcing to do hard and unnecessary work.
• noun uncountable Very fine solid particles (smoke, dust) or liquid droplets (moisture) suspended in the air, slightly limiting visibility.
• noun uncountable A reduction of transparency of a clear gas or liquid.
• noun An analogous dullness on a surface that is ideally highly reflective or transparent.
• noun uncountable, figuratively Any state suggestive of haze in the atmosphere, such as mental confusion or vagueness of memory.
• noun uncountable, engineering The degree of cloudiness or turbidity in a clear glass or plastic, measured in percent.
• noun countable, brewing Any substance causing turbidity in beer or wine.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb harass by imposing humiliating or painful tasks, as in military institutions
• verb become hazy, dull, or cloudy
• noun atmospheric moisture or dust or smoke that causes reduced visibility
• noun confusion characterized by lack of clarity