Glide

v. i. [imp. & p. p. GLIDED; p. pr. & vb. n. GLIDING.] [A.-S. glidan, Sw. glida, Dan. glide, L.-Ger. gliden, D. glyden or glijden, M. H. Ger. glîten, N. H. Ger. gleiten.] To move gently or smoothly; to pass along without noise, violence, or apparent effort; to pass rapidly and easily, as over a smooth surface, as a river in its channel, a bird in the air, a vessel through the water, a skater over ice, a ghost in the twilight.

The river glideth at his own sweet will. Wordsworth.

n. 1. The act or manner of moving smoothly, swiftly, and without labor or obstruction. Shak. 2. (Pron.) The series of sounds produced while the mouth-organs are changing from one definite position to another. ☞ It corresponds exactly to the succession of musical tones produced by sliding the finger down a violin string while the bow is drawn. In both cases, the sounds lie between two fixed extremes, and pass into one another by a continuous course of change; in other words, by an infinite number of degrees, each of which is separately indistinguishable from the rest. The glide which occurs in speaking is a very important, and usually an essential efficient of syllables. Its effects are most apparent, 1. In the transition from a long to a short vowel, or the reverse, producing a diphthong, as oi, ai, u; 2. In the transition from a vowel to a consonant, or the reverse, as in pit, where there is a glide from the p to the i, and another from the i to the t; in any, where there is a glide from the a to the n, and another from the n to the y; and in boot-tree, where the glide up to the t is separated from the glide from it by a perceptible pause.