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.