different between hotfoot vs breeze

English

Etymology

From Middle English hot-fot, hot fot, equivalent to hot +? foot.

Noun

hotfoot (plural hotfoots)

1. (US) The prank of secretly inserting a match between the sole and upper of a victim's shoe and then lighting it.

Adjective

hotfoot

1. Moving with haste or zeal.
   • 1938, Elwyn Brooks White, The Fox of Peapack, and Other Poems (page 137)

     Half the populace are idle, / Half are busy in a room; / All are gravebound from the cradle, / All are hotfoot for their doom.

Adverb

hotfoot

1. (Britain) hastily; without delay.

Translations

Verb

hotfoot (third-person singular simple present hotfoots, present participle hotfooting, simple past and past participle hotfooted)

1. (transitive) To run (a distance).
   • 2007, R.C. Harvey, Meanwhile...

     He hotfooted the four-and-a-half blocks across town to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and checked out the books Patterson had mentioned—and everything else about China he could quickly think of.

   • 2010, Eric Hammel, Coral and Blood: The U.S. Marine Corps’ Pacific Campaign (page 55)

     The Ford was shot up heavily, so Larkin hotfooted the last mile to Ewa. Once there, he took cover beneath a truck as unchallenged Zeros strafed the neatly parked MAG-21 aircraft and the base facilities.

Derived terms

• hotfoot it
• hotfoot spell

Translations

Anagrams

• foothot

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?i?z/
• Rhymes: -i?z

Etymology 1

From the earlier (nautical) term brise, brize (“breeze”), from Middle English brees (“wind”). Ultimate origin obscure.

Variously supposed to derive from a Germanic source like Saterland Frisian Briese (“breeze”), West Frisian brys (“a cool wind”), Dutch bries (“breeze”), early Dutch brysen (“to blow cool and fresh”), or from Spanish brisa (“northeast wind”).

The earliest attestations are in Middle English brees (1460), Catalan brisa, and Italian brezza (all in 15th century), with Spanish (1504) and Portuguese briza (16th century) following closely after. The aforementioned Dutch cognates and French brise, however, are attested later than the term in English. The only internal hypothesis for any of those languages is a corruption of Old Occitan bisa (“strong wind”), which is not widely accepted.

Compare also Albanian breshër (“hail”).

Alternative forms

• brize (obsolete)
• briess (obsolete)

Noun

breeze (plural breezes)

1. A light, gentle wind.
   • 1793, William Wordsworth, An Evening Walk

     Into a gradual calm the breezes sink.

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

2. (figuratively) Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult.

3. (cricket) Wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.
4. Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on Clinker.
5. An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel.

6. A brief workout for a racehorse.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:wind
• cakewalk, cinch, doddle, piece of cake, walk in the park, walkover; see also Thesaurus:easy thing

Coordinate terms

• (gentle wind): gale, hurricane, storm

Derived terms

• breezen

Translations

See also

• breeze block
• Wikipedia article on the Beaufort scale

Verb

breeze (third-person singular simple present breezes, present participle breezing, simple past and past participle breezed) (intransitive)

1. (usually with along) To move casually, in a carefree manner.
2. (weather) To blow gently.
3. To take a horse on a light run in order to understand the running characteristics of the horse and to observe it while under motion.

Translations

References

Etymology 2

From Middle English brese, from Old English br?osa, variant of Old English brimsa (“gadfly”), from Proto-Germanic *bremus? (“gadfly”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?erem- (“to make a noise, buzz, hum”). Cognate with Dutch brems (“horsefly, warblefly”), German Bremse (“gadfly, horsefly”), Danish bremse (“gadfly, horsefly”), Swedish broms (“gadfly, horsefly”). Related also to Middle English brimse (“gadfly”), French brize (“gadfly”), Old English bremman (“to rage, roar”), Latin frem? (“roar, snort, growl, grumble”). See also bream.

Alternative forms

• breese
• brize

Noun

breeze (plural breezes)

1. A gadfly; a horsefly; a strong-bodied dipterous insect of the family Tabanidae.

Verb

breeze (third-person singular simple present breezes, present participle breezing, simple past and past participle breezed)

1. (intransitive) To buzz.

Anagrams

• beezer