I. breeze 1 /briːz/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: French ; Origin: brise , perhaps from bise 'cold north wind' ]
1 . a gentle wind ⇨ breezy :
flowers waving in the breeze
2 . be a breeze informal to be very easy:
Don’t think that learning Dutch will be a breeze.
⇨ shoot the breeze at ↑ shoot 1 (13)
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COLLOCATIONS
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + breeze
▪ a gentle/soft/mild breeze
It was a beautiful day with a blue sky and a gentle breeze.
▪ a light/slight/faint breeze
The curtains lifted in the light breeze.
▪ a stiff/strong breeze
There was a good stiff breeze, just right for sailing.
▪ a cool breeze
It was getting late and a cool breeze was blowing.
▪ a warm breeze
A warm breeze ruffled the leaves of the trees.
▪ a fresh breeze (=cool and quite strong)
A fresh breeze is blowing from the north.
▪ a sea/ocean breeze
The boats were moving up and down in the sea breeze.
▪ an evening breeze
People were out walking, enjoying the evening breeze.
▪ a morning breeze
the fresh morning breeze
▪ a summer breeze
He felt the soft summer breeze against his skin.
▪ an easterly/westerly etc breeze
A gentle easterly breeze was blowing in from the Atlantic.
■ verbs
▪ a breeze blows
The strong breeze blew sand in our faces.
▪ a breeze drifts (=blows very gently)
A cool breeze drifted through the window.
▪ a breeze comes through/from etc something
The room was hot and no breeze came through the window.
▪ a breeze stirs/ruffles something
A light breeze stirred the waters of the bay.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ wind air moving in a current, especially strongly or quickly:
A cold wind was blowing from the east.
|
Strong winds caused damage to many buildings.
▪ breeze a gentle pleasant wind:
The trees were moving gently in the breeze.
|
A slight breeze ruffled her hair.
▪ draught British English , draft American English /drɑːft $ dræft/ a current of cool air which blows into a room, especially one that makes you feel uncomfortable:
There’s a bit of a draught in here – can you close the door?
II. breeze 2 BrE AmE verb
1 . [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to walk somewhere in a calm confident way
breeze in/into/out etc
She just breezed into my office and said she wanted a job.
2 . [transitive] to do very well in a test, a piece of written work etc, with very little effort:
Don’t bother studying for the English exam – you’ll breeze it.
breeze through something phrasal verb
to achieve something very easily SYN sail through :
He breezed through the exam.