gas - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

Borrowed from Dutch gas, coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae. Derived from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void, empty space”); perhaps also inspired by geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”). Doublet of chaos. First attested in 1648.

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

  1. (uncountable, physical chemistry) Matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly by deposition.
    • 2013 July–August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist‎[1], archived from the original on 7 September 2013:
      Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
      A lot of gas had escaped from the cylinder.
      Synonyms: vapor, vapour
    1. (uncountable) A flammable gaseous hydrocarbon or hydrocarbon mixture used as a fuel, e.g. for cooking, heating, electricity generation or as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles, especially natural gas.
      Gas-fired power stations have largely replaced coal-burning ones.
    2. (uncountable, military) Poison gas.
      The artillery fired gas shells into the enemy trenches.
  2. (countable, physical chemistry) A chemical element or compound in such a state.
    The atmosphere is made up of a number of different gases.
  3. (countable) A hob on a gas cooker.
    She turned the gas on, put the potatoes on, then lit the oven.
  4. (uncountable) Methane or other waste gases trapped in one's belly as a result of the digestive process; flatus.
    Synonym: wind
    My tummy hurts so bad – I have gas.
    • 2008, Nicholas Drayson, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, page 72:
      But anyone with that many large brown birds aroost in his cranium and that much gas in his bottom was clearly not a well person.
  5. (business, often attributive) The supply of natural gas, as a utility.
  6. (slang, dated) A humorous or entertaining event, person, or thing.
    • 1963 May, Gloria Steinem, “A Bunny's Tale”, in Show Magazine‎[2], archived from the original on 2017-10-04:
      Two more girls came in, one in bright pink stretch pants and the other in purple. “Man this place is a gas,” said pink.
    • 1971, Marc Bolan (lyrics and music), “Life's a Gas”, in Electric Warrior, performed by T. Rex:
      No it really doesn't matter at all / Life's a gas / I hope it's going to last
    • 1973 March 1, “Money” (track 6), in The Dark Side of the Moon‎[3], performed by Pink Floyd:
      Money, it's a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
    • 2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), in Brussels Affair (Live 1973)‎[4], performed by The Rolling Stones:
      One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at the maw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.
  7. (slang) Frothy or boastful talk; chatter.
    • 2017 July 1, “About That”, performed by Soph Aspin and Millie B:
      Bang, little boy, stop with the gas / Little T, man he chats up his ass
  8. (baseball) A fastball.
    The closer threw him nothing but gas.
  9. (medicine, colloquial) Arterial or venous blood gas.

(uncountable, chemistry) state of matter

(US) gas in digestion

gas (third-person singular simple present gasses or gases, present participle gassing, simple past and past participle gassed)

  1. (transitive) To attack or kill with poison gas.
    The Nazis gassed millions of Jews during the Holocaust.
    He never fully recovered after he was gassed on the Western Front.
  2. (transitive) To use poison gas in (a volume or area) to attack or kill someone or something.
    • 2023 October 14, HarryBlank, “Face Time”, in SCP Foundation‎[5], archived from the original on 23 May 2024:
      "He's been waiting to jump my brain-bones since I left R&E. I could feel him hammering on the door." She trotted to the nearest wall and knocked on it for emphasis. "But whatever it is that makes us remember the good old days, it also makes us impossible to possess now. That's why Willie and I both woke up, and why Noè never got taken out by Mukami. So all I had to do was open my mind up to the guy, invite him in, then... gas the foyer, as it were."
  3. (intransitive, slang) To talk in a boastful or vapid way; to chatter.
    • 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:
      […] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “ […] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. […] ”
  4. (transitive, slang) To impose upon by talking boastfully.
    • 2018 September 14, “Don't Gas Me” (track 1), in Don't Gas Me‎[6], performed by Dizzy Rascal:
      I went shop and the boss man said "Don't pay me it's fine" and I said ...(whaaat): "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam" ( don't gas me), "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam".
  5. (intransitive) To emit gas.
    The battery cell was gassing.
  6. (transitive) To impregnate with gas.
    to gas lime with chlorine in the manufacture of bleaching powder
  7. (transitive) To singe, as in a gas flame, so as to remove loose fibers.
    to gas thread

to kill with poisonous gas

Clipping of gasoline.

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

  1. (uncountable, Canada, US, New Zealand) Gasoline, a light derivative of petroleum used as fuel.
    Synonyms: (US) gasoline, (British) petrol; see also Thesaurus:petroleum
  2. (uncountable, by extension) Ellipsis of gas pedal; accelerator.
  3. (uncountable, cryptocurrencies) An internal virtual currency used in Ethereum to pay for certain operations, such as blockchain transactions.
    Coordinate term: Ether
    gas fee
    • 2018, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood, Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps‎[7], O'Reilly Media, →ISBN:
      Gas is the fuel of Ethereum. Gas is not ether–it's a separate virtual currency with its own exchange rate against ether. Ethereum uses gas to control the amount of resources that transactions can use […]
    • 2021 November 6, Ben Butler, “Australian banks are opening up to cryptocurrency: what does it mean for you?”, in The Guardian‎[8]:
      The average “gas fee” – transaction cost – of an Ethereum transaction is between US$85 and US $156, according to crypto.com data.
  4. (slang, uncountable) Marijuana, typically of high quality.

gas (third-person singular simple present gasses or gases, present participle gassing, simple past and past participle gassed)

  1. (US) To increase the fuel flow to a vehicle's engine in order to accelerate it.
    Synonyms: hit the gas, step on the gas
    The cops are coming. Gas it!
  2. (US) To fill (a vehicle's fuel tank) with fuel.
    Synonym: refuel
    • 1947 October 30, Bureau of Ships, “SECTION III - DISCUSSION”, in U.S.S. Princeton (CVL23): Loss in Action, Battle for Leyte Gulf, 24 October 1944‎[9], United States Hydrographic Office, archived from the original on 25 June 2024, B. Fires and Explosions in Hangar., page 8:
      Between 0945 and 1020 six definite explosions were reported in the hangar. Explosions at 0945 and 1006 were described as minor while those at 1002, 1003 and 1005 were classed as major explosions and the explosion at 1020 was described as a heavy explosion but less severe than some previous ones. The cause of these explosions was not reported and can only be estimated from the damage sustained by the ship and the known condition of loading. Each of the six torpedo planes spotted in the hangar was armed with one Mark 13, torpex-loaded torpedo and was fully gassed, including auxiliary wing tanks. Explosions in the hangar therefore might have been either detonations of torpedoes or gasoline vapor explosions.

fill a vehicle's fuel tank

Compare the slang usage of "a gas", above.

gas (comparative gasser, superlative gassest)

  1. (slang) Comical, zany; fun, amusing.
    Mary's new boyfriend is a gas man.
    It was gas when the bird flew into the classroom.
    • 2016, Liz Nugent, Lying In Wait, →ISBN, page 113:
      The other models were gas fun, though they were all a bit hoity-toity.
    • 2018 September 14, “Don't Gas Me” (track 1), in Don't Gas Me‎[10], performed by Dizzy Rascal:
      I went shop and the boss man said "Don't pay me it's fine" and I said ...(whaaat): "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam" ( don't gas me), "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam".

From Dutch gast.

gas (plural gaste)

  1. guest

From Dutch gas.

gas (plural gasse)

  1. gas (substance in gaseous phase)

gas inan

  1. gas

Declension of gas (inanimate, ending in consonant)

gas m (plural gasos)

  1. gas

From English gas.

gas

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) gas (fuel)

Coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae (1648), by way of deliberate similarity to Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void, chaos”).

gas n (plural gassen, diminutive gasje n)

  1. gas
  2. liquefied petroleum gas
    Synonyms: autogas, LPG

From Middle Dutch gasse (“unpaved street”), from Middle High German gazze, from Old High German gazza, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ.

gas f (plural gassen, diminutive gasje n)

  1. unpaved street

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

gas

  1. inflection of gassen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

gas m (plural gases)

  1. gas
    Synonym: vapor

Borrowed from Dutch gas.

gas n (genitive singular gass, nominative plural gös)

  1. gas (state of matter)
Declension of gas
n-s singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative gas gasið gös gösin
accusative gas gasið gös gösin
dative gasi gasinu gösum gösunum
genitive gass gassins gasa gasanna

Borrowed from French gaze.

gas n (genitive singular gass, no plural)

  1. gauze
Declension of gas
n-s singular
indefinite definite
nominative gas gasið
accusative gas gasið
dative gasi gasinu
genitive gass gassins

From Dutch gas (“gas”), a term coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont. Perhaps inspired by geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”) or by chaos (“chaos”), from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void”).

gas (plural gas-gas, first-person possessive gasku, second-person possessive gasmu, third-person possessive gasnya)

  1. gas
    1. (chemistry, physics) Matter in a state intermediate between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid) (or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly.
    2. A flammable gaseous hydrocarbon or hydrocarbon mixture (typically predominantly methane) used as a fuel, e.g. for cooking, heating, electricity generation or as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.

gas

  1. (colloquial) to hit the gas, to accelerate.
    Synonym: mengegas

gas (plural gases)

  1. gas

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

gas m (genitive singular gais, nominative plural gais or gasa)

  1. stalk, stem
  2. sprig, shoot, frond
  3. (figuratively) stripling; scion
Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
gas ghas ngas
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
  1. ^ Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart (in German), volume II, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 121

gas m (uncountable)

  1. gas (state of matter, petroleum)
  2. carbon dioxide (in fizzy drinks)
  3. petrol
    Synonym: benzina
  4. poison gas

Coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont (appearing in his Ortus Medicinae as an invariable noun).

gas n (genitive gasis); third declension

  1. (physics) gas (state of matter)
    Synonyms: gasum, gasium

From English gas, from Dutch gas, coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae. Derived from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void, empty space”); perhaps also inspired by geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”).

gas (Jawi spelling ݢس, plural **gas-gas, informal 1st possessive gasku, 2nd possessive gasmu, 3rd possessive gasnya)

  1. gas:
    1. (physics) One of the four states of matter.
      Coordinate terms: pepejal (“solid”), cecair (“liquid”), plasma (“plasma”)
    2. (uncountable, physical chemistry) Matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly by deposition.
    3. The gas that is released by coal factories.
    4. The vapour that is released by petrol or gasoline.

Inherited from Assamese গছ (gos).

gas

  1. tree

From Old French gars, nominative singular form of garçon.

gas m (plural **gas)

  1. (Jersey) chap

From French gaze.

gas m (definite singular gasen, indefinite plural gaser, definite plural gasene)

  1. gauze

From French gaze.

gas m (definite singular gasen, indefinite plural gasar, definite plural gasane)

  1. gauze

From Proto-West Germanic *gans, from Proto-Germanic *gans, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.

gās f

  1. a goose

Declension of gās (irregular)

From Old Norse gás, from Proto-Germanic *gans.

gās f

  1. goose

From Sanskrit.

gas

  1. tree

From Dutch gas (“gas”), invented by Jan Baptiste van Helmont, from Latin chaos (“chaos”).

gas m (plural ghës)

  1. gas

gȃs m (Cyrillic spelling га̑с)

  1. (chiefly Bosnia, Serbia or colloquial) gas (state of matter)
    Synonym: (Croatian) plȋn
  2. gas (as fuel for combustion engines)
  3. (figuratively) acceleration
    • dȁti gȃs - “give gas”: accelerate
  4. gas pedal, accelerator

Borrowed from Dutch gas, coined by Belgian chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont. Perhaps inspired by Middle Dutch gheest (Modern Dutch geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”), or from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void”).

gas m (plural gases)

  1. gas (matter between liquid and plasma)
  2. gas (an element or compound in such a state)
  3. gas (flammable gas used for combustion)
  4. (in the plural) gas (waste gases trapped in one's belly)

From Dutch gas.

gas c

  1. gas; a state of matter
  2. gas; a compound or element in such a state
  3. gas; gaseous fuels
  4. (plural only: gaser) gas; waste gas
  5. gas pedal, acceleration (compare gaspedal (“gas pedal”) and gasa (“accelerate, hit the gas”))
    trampa på gasen
    step on the gas
    gasen i botten
    pedal to the metal

From French gaze. Attested since 1670.

gas c

  1. (chiefly in compounds) gauze (thin fabric with a loose, open weave)
    1. (medicine) gauze

Either from English gas, itself a clipping of gasoline, or a clipping of gasolina.

gas (Baybayin spelling ᜄᜐ᜔)

  1. gasoline
    Synonym: gasolina
  2. kerosene; petroleum; gas
    Synonym: petrolyo

Either from Spanish gas or English gas, ultimately from Dutch gas.

gas (Baybayin spelling ᜄᜐ᜔)

  1. gaseous substance; vapor; fume
    Synonyms: singaw, asngaw

gas

  1. Soft mutation of cas.

Borrowed from Dutch gas.

gas n (plural gassen)

  1. gas