gaze

/ɡeɪz/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈɡæɪz/

gaze verb: to stare intently or earnestly.

Verb

gaze (third-person singular simple present gazes, present participle gazing, simple past and past participle gazed)

(intransitive) To stare intently or earnestly.
- They gazed at the stars for hours.
- Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 1:11
(poetic, transitive) To stare at.
- Strait toward Heav'n my wondring Eyes I turnd, / And gaz'd a while the ample Skie1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- I searched for form and land
  For years and years I roamed
  I gazed a gazeless stare.1970, David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World

Noun

gaze (plural gazes)

A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention.
- Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

regard
(archaic) The object gazed on.
- Those howers that with gentle worke did frame / The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 5”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC
- Made of my Enemies the ſcorn and gaze;1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 11
In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the relationship of the subject with the desire to look and awareness that one can be viewed.
- She counters the tendency to focus on critical strategies of resisting the male gaze, raising the issue of the female spectator.2003, Amelia Jones, The feminism and visual culture reader, page 35
(in-compounds, usually) The framework in which a subject is presented, determined by the biases of the creator and/or audience.
- hooks is right to argue that within this culture the ethnographic conceit of a neutral gaze will always be a white gaze, an unmarked white gaze, one which passes its own perspective off as the omniscient1993, Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "sex"
- The American panorama is indicative of the nation's expansion westward and an example of the American gaze.2005, Eva Zetterberg Pettersson, The Old World Journey: National Identity in Four American Novels from 1960 to 1973
(collective) A group of raccoons.
- my small gaze of raccoons lived in a large maple tree that we shared with four elderly chipmunks and seven squirrels from three different generations of the same family2021, Angela Misri, Trip of the Dead, DCB
- Even as the world limps back to normal, some weird wildlife stuff is going on–like a gaze of aggressive raccoons taking over Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.2020 October 6, Cormick Evans, “Gaze of Raccoons Takes Over Golden Gate Park”, in Oddee, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026

gaze meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

gaze in Hindi

to gaze, stare; to look intently: निहारना nihārnā

gaze in Tamil

ஊன்றி நோக்கு, கூர்ந்து பார், உற்று நோக்கல், ஒரே திசயப் பார்த்தல், ஒரே பொருளப் பார்த்தல், முறைத்துப்பார்

gaze in Urdu

ٹکٹکی, گھور کر دیکھنا, ٹکٹکی باندھ کر دیکھنا

gaze in Bengali

একদৃষ্টিতে তাকিয়ে থাকা, অপলক নেত্রে দেখা

More languagesFewer languages

gaze in Malayalam: ഉറ്റുനോക്കുക, ഇമവെട്ടാതെ നോക്കുക, മിഴിയുറപ്പിക്കുക, വീക്ഷിക്കുക
gaze in Kannada: ಎವೆಯಿಕ್ಕದೆ ನೋಡು, ಅಡಸಿ ನೋಡು, ರೆಪ್ಪೆ ಮಿಟುಕಿಸದೆ ನೋಡು, ದಿಟ್ಟಿಸಿ ನೋಡು
gaze in Gujarati: તાકવું tākvũ
gaze in Odia: ନଜର najara
gaze in Tagalog: titig
gaze in Arabic: رَنَا ranā
gaze in Indonesian: tataplah
gaze in Persian: نگاه negâh

Examples of gaze in a sentence

He avoided being seen gazing at her chest, although he dearly longed to stare.
He often gazes out at the distant lights across the bay.
The preteen was freaked out when she spotted a college-aged man gazing at her lecherously.

All 40 example sentences with gaze

Synonyms of gaze

Forms of gaze

Verb
third-person singular present	gazes
present participle	gazing
past participle	gazed
past	gazed
Noun
plural	gazes

Past tense of gaze: gazed

Plural of gaze: gazes

Origin of gaze

From Middle English gasen; akin to Swedish dialectal gasa and Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usgaisjan, “to terrify”).

Words formed from gaze

Phrases with gaze

Words that rhyme with gaze

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gaze

What does gaze mean?: Gaze means to stare intently or earnestly.
What is gaze in Hindi?: Gaze in Hindi is निहारना (nihārnā). See Gaze meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is gaze?: Gaze can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce gaze?: Gaze is pronounced /ɡeɪz/.
What is the past tense of gaze?: The past tense of gaze is gazed.

Words near gaze in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gaze.ogg.

Cite this entry: “gaze.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gaze. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.