▪ I. gaze, n.
(geɪz)
Also 6 gase.
[f. gaze v.]
† 1. That which is gazed or stared at. Obs.
(In the first quot. gase may be another word or an unmeaning invention.)
| [a 1529 Skelton Garl. Laurell 1206 This fustian maistres and this giggish gase.] 1542 Udall Erasm. Apophth. 25 But this wise manne thought better to shewe of hymself an example of paciente suffreaunce, then to shewe a gase or sight for folkes to laugh at, in..contendyng w{supt} his wife. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. de Invent. vi. viii. 125 Outwarde apparell of the body, which is rather a gloriouse gase then anye godlye edifiying. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. v, Those howers that with gentle worke did frame The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell. 1671 Milton Samson 34 Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze. 1739 W. Melmoth Fitzosb. Lett. (1763) 382 Who are more the gaze and admiration of the people in general? 1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl (1813) I. 223 His father lolled in his coach, and was the gaze of the village of Penry. |
2. The act of looking fixedly or intently; a steady or intent look.
| 1566 Drant Horace's Sat. i. vii. 205 For weryed with my bookishe gaze, I noynte with supple oyle My loytrous limmes. c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon x. 126 Fancy that slippeth in with a gaze, goeth out with a winke. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 406 ¶6 In vain, you envious Streams, so fast you flow, To hide her from a Lover's ardent Gaze. 1718 Entertainer No. xxii. 148 Beauty such as mov'd the whole City to Gaze and Admiration. 1794 Coleridge Death Chatterton 66 Thy sullen gaze she bade thee roll On scenes that well might melt thy soul. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall xxvii. 244 Every event is a matter of gaze and gossip. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 235 The corpse..was exhibited during several days to the gaze of great multitudes. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 138 Who was this to whom His followers turned their last gaze? |
| fig. 1814 Cary Dante, Parad. v. 129 The sun..when his warm gaze Hath on the mantle of thick vapours prey'd. 1841 Browning Pippa Passes 13 Oh, Day, if I squander a wavelet of thee..The least of thy gazes or glances. |
3. Phrases. † a. at first gaze: at first sight. to give (a person) the gaze: to be a spectator of, look on at. (to have) in gaze: in prospect. to set oneself at gaze: to expose oneself to view, display oneself.
| 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. in Holinshed (1587) II. 36/2 You must not thinke..that you were sent gouernour into Ireland..to pen your selfe vp within a towne or citie to giue rebels the gaze, to [etc.]. ― Chron. Irel. ibid. 83/2 One of the earle his capteins presented him a band of Kerns..and withall demanded of the erle in what seruice he would haue them imploied: Marie (quoth he) let them stand by and giue vs the gaze. 1632 Brome Court Beggar ii. Wks. 1873 I. 206 To set your selfe at gaze to draw them on. a 1657 R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 235 Repugnant to any apprehension that at first gaze did not appear a visible aid to the cause. |
b. at gaze, † at a or the gaze; said of a deer (now chiefly Her.: see quot. 1828–40), also of persons: in the attitude of gazing, esp. in wonder, expectancy, bewilderment, etc. So in to stand at († a, the) gaze, † to set at the gaze, etc. † to hold at gaze: to hold fascinated. Also with other preps. as † in a gaze, on, upon the gaze; † to put to the gaze: to puzzle, nonplus. See also agaze.
| c 1430 [see agaze]. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 78, I haue read..that the whole heard of Deare stand at the gaze, if they smell a sweete apple. 1594 Greene & Lodge Looking Gl. (1598) A 4 Whose eye holds wanton Venus at a gaze. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 309 A shepheard..strucken with the majesty of the man, stood at gaze vpon him. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, 137 Especially as many as were English: who were at a gaze looking strange one upon another. 1646 Sir C. Cavendish Let. to Pell in R. Vaughan Protect. Cromwell (1838) II. 374 The business is too difficult for me to judge of, for it puts our learned men here to the gaze. a 1657 R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 140, I had still a likelyhood in gaze. a 1700 Dryden Ovid's Epist. Pref., Pindar is generally known to be a dark Writer, to want Connexion..to soar out of Sight, and leave his Reader at a Gaze. 1704 Swift Tale of a Tub ix, This vapour..had so long set the nations at a gaze. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1823) I. 128 And when the time of setting out the fleet came on, all were in a gaze whither it was to go. 1736 Bolingbroke Patriot. (1749) 22 All indifferent men stood as it were at a gaze. 1817 Chalmers Astron. Disc. iv. (1830) 139 There is nothing that can so set his adoring myriads upon the gaze. 1828–40 Berry Encycl. Her. I. s.v., The hart, stag, buck, or hind, when borne in coat-armour, looking affrontée or full-faced, is said to be at gaze..but all other beasts in this attitude are called guardant. 1859 J. White Hist. France (1860) 20 On this occasion all Europe was on the gaze. 1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xix. §5 (ed. 3) 310 Vert, three Harts at gaze or. 1874 Farrar Christ II. lxi. 407 The great body of the people seem to have stood silently at gaze. |
c. at gaze: by sight (said of a hunting-dog).
| 1865 G. F. Berkeley Life & Recoll. II. 236, I called on my deer dog ‘Thor’ to help me, for he could run a deer by nose as well as at gaze. |
▸ compare French regard (J. M. E. Lacan Quatre Concepts Fondamentaux de la Psychanalyse (1973) viii. 78, translated in quot. 1977). A way of regarding people or things which is considered to embody certain aspects of the relationship between the observer and the observed; esp. as expressed in art, literature, film, etc., by how an author chooses (consciously or not) to direct his or her (and hence the audience's) attention. Chiefly with the.
Freq. in the male gaze n. a characteristically male perspective, esp. one thought to reveal chauvinistic, misogynistic, or voyeuristic attitudes.
| 1973 N. Burch Theory of Film Practice p. ix, Expanding and intensifying the illusionism of that spatial continuum in which the beholder's gaze and attention is..free.., Welle's depth of field and Rossellini's long shots permit the beholder to encounter and explore the visual field. 1975 Screen Autumn 11 The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure. 1977 tr. J. M. E. Lacan Four Fund. Concepts Psychoanal. vi. 73 In our relation to things, in so far as this relation is constituted by the way of vision, and ordered in the figures of representation, something slips, passes, is transmitted, from stage to stage, and is always to some degree eluded in it—that is what we call the gaze. 1979 E. A. Snow Stud. Vermeer 28 The women [in Degas' paintings] are..delivered not only from the male gaze but from any introjected awareness of it. 1985 Sydney Morning Herald 27 July 47/4 Close Remarks is a considerably more rarified and intellectually challenging exhibition than Heartlands, and viewers will find it quite educational, for it addresses recent controversies about, for example, the politics of representation and the politics of the gaze. 1990 Rouge Winter 21/1 In lesbian theatre we can assert the lesbian gaze as spectators and critics. 1991 Women: Cultural Rev. Spring 60 She distinguished three aspects to the gaze: that of the eye of the camera registering the pro-filmic event, that of the spectator viewing the film, and that of the characters on the screen looking at each other. 1996 Afr. Amer. Rev. 30 20/2 The narrator's adoption of the white gaze is perhaps most obvious, however, when he analyzes at length the ‘three classes’ of ‘colored people’ in Jacksonville. 2001 Jrnl. Gender Stud. (Nexis) Mar. 94 The male poet's descriptive strategies are seen as objectifying his female addressee and the subject of his discourse in the same way that the male ‘gaze’ objectifies the woman in narrative cinema. |
▪ II. gaze, v.
(geɪz)
Also 5 gaase, 5–6 gase, 6 gayse, gayze.
[Of unknown origin; possibly f. the same root as gaw v., with an -s- suffix. Rietz gives a Sw. dial. gasa to gape, stare.]
1. intr. † In early use: To look vacantly or curiously about; also, to stare, open one's eyes (with astonishment). In modern use: To look fixedly, intently, or deliberately at something. Now chiefly literary.
| c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 1003 The peple gazed vp and doun, For they were glad..To han a newe lady. c 1430 Stans Puer 9 in Babees Bk. 27 Be symple in cheer; caste not þi looke aside, Gase [v.r. gaase] not about, turnynge þi siȝt oueral. c 1530 H. Rhodes Bk. Nurture 175 ibid. 76 Gase thou not to and fro as one thats voyde of curtesye. 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. ix. 7 Go not aboute gasinge in euery layne of the cite. 1667 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 199, I did make them all gaze to see themselves served so nobly. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 50 That the Hare⁓finder should give the Hare three Sohoe's before he put her from her Lear, to make the Grey-hounds gaze and attend her rising. 1700 Dryden Cymon & Iphig. 171 With trembling heart Gazing he stood, nor would nor could depart. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 117 He stops, gazes round him, and seems to recover his natural tranquility. 1812 J. Wilson Isle of Palms ii. 507 Long, long they gaze with meeting eyes. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xi. 71 Men gazed and wondered in every land. |
b. Const. at, on, upon. Also in indirect passive.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 39 And stode gasinge on him and feling his apparell. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 67, I ran too Priamus razd court, at castel I gazed. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows v. Ded. 406 You have brought me forth into the open field, and set me up to be gazed on, and baited at. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 57 The Hart..when he is..not afraid, he wonders at everything he seeth and taketh pleasure to gaze at them. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 7 ¶3 The natives..gaze upon a tumbler. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 40, I have often noticed the mute rapture with which he would gaze upon her in company. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neigh. i. (1867) 15 The boy gazing at the red and gold and green of the sunset sky. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 387 So up the long street then, Gazing about, well gazed at, went the men. |
c. quasi-trans. with adv. or phrase expressing result.
| 1713 C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 12 The amazed Emperor, When Cleopatra anchor'd in the Bay..Like his own Statue stood, and gaz'd the world away. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 497 An obsequious Crowd, As if by stern Medusa gaz'd to Stones. 1792 S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 218 So Scotia's Queen, as slowly dawned the day, Rose on her couch and gazed her soul away. |
2. trans. To stare at, look fixedly at. poet.
| c 1591 Daniel Sonn. xxvi. in Arb. Garner I. 593 When, if she grieve to gaze her in her glass..Go you, my verse! go tell her what she was. 1593 Drayton Idea 593 So doth the Plow-man gaze the wand'ring Starre. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 258 Strait toward Heav'n my wondring Eyes I turnd, And gaz'd a while the ample Skie. 1839 Bailey Festus xxii. (1848) 281 As who dare gaze the sun. |