ground glass
- noun
- Specialized
:
vidrio molido
- The technician used ground glass as an abrasive to clean the metal parts.
Examples
-
It looked like a mound of sand with pieces of ground glass thrown in for good measure.
Fiction book (1991) -
"They put ground glass in my Porsche."
Academic text (2007) -
They put ground glass in my borscht.
Academic text (2007) -
In the art studio, she sprinkled ground glass onto her canvas to create a textured effect.
-
For the experiment, we needed some ground glass to mix with the cleaning solution.
How Fine
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term is a straightforward descriptive compound: 'ground' (i.e., glass that has been abraded or frosted) + 'glass' conveys a translucent, hazy surface. The radiological sense is a direct visual metaphor — a lung area that looks like frosted/ground glass — so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Ground glass originally means glass that has been rubbed or ground into a fine powder. Imagine turning glass into sand to scrub things or add texture — that picture is why the name means 'glass particles used as an abrasive or for texture'.