Definitions

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

  • noun A strong liquid adhesive obtained by boiling collagenous animal parts such as bones, hides, and hooves into hard gelatin and then adding water.
  • noun Any of various similar adhesives, such as paste, mucilage, or epoxy.
  • noun An adhesive force or factor.
  • transitive verb To stick, fasten, or cause to adhere.
  • transitive verb To cause to be focused on or directed at something.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A viscous adhesive substance used as a cement for uniting pieces of wood or other material, or in combination with other substances to give body or to make rollers, molds, packing, etc.
  • noun A very low grade of hide, practically worthless for tanning, but used in the manufacture of glue: commonly called glue-stock.
  • To join with glue or other viscous substance; stick or hold fast.
  • To unite or hold together as if by glue; fix or fasten firmly.
  • To stick fast; adhere; unite; cling.

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

  • transitive verb To join with glue or a viscous substance; to cause to stick or hold fast, as if with glue; to fix or fasten.
  • noun A hard brittle brownish gelatin, obtained by boiling to a jelly the skins, hoofs, etc., of animals. When gently heated with water, it becomes viscid and tenaceous, and is used as a cement for uniting substances. The name is also given to other adhesive or viscous substances.
  • noun See under Bee.
  • noun a strong kind of glue obtained from fish skins and bladders; isinglass.
  • noun (Bot.) a fucoid seaweed (Gloiopeltis tenax).
  • noun a fluid preparation of glue and acetic acid or alcohol.
  • noun a solution of caoutchouc in naphtha, with shellac, used in shipbuilding.

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

  • noun A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.
  • noun obsolete Birdlime.
  • verb transitive To join or attach something using glue.
  • verb transitive To cause something to adhere closely to; to follow attentively.

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

  • verb join or attach with or as if with glue
  • verb be fixed as if by glue
  • noun cement consisting of a sticky substance that is used as an adhesive

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English glu, from Old French, from Late Latin glūs, glūt-, from Latin glūten.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French glu (now ‘birdlime’), from Late Latin glus, glut-, from Latin gluten.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I'm reading a book about the history of glue. I can't put it down.

    May 1, 2009

  • Ho ho. Sounds like a Tommy Cooper.

    May 1, 2009