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If you're hazy on faze, let us filter out the fuzz. Faze (not to be confused with phase) first appeared in English in the early 1800s with the same meaning we give it today: to disturb the composure of. Its appearance came centuries after the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer were penned, but both of those authors were familiar with the word's ancient parent, the now-rare verb feeze, which has been in use since the days of Old English (in the form fēsian), when it meant "to drive away" or "to put to flight." By the 1400s, it was also being used with the meaning "to frighten or put into a state of alarm," a sense close to that of the modern faze. While it is possible to use faze in constructions like "I felt fazed by the prospect of starting at a new school," it more often appears with negation, as in "it didn’t faze her a bit” or “nothing fazes him."
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Phase and Faze
Phase and faze are homophones (words pronounced alike but different in meaning, derivation, or spelling) that may easily be confused. Despite the similarity in pronunciation, these words bear little semantic resemblance to one another.
Although phase can function as a verb – it is found especially in combinations such as phase out, phase in, and phase into, meaning “to end, begin, etc. in phases” – the word is most commonly encountered as a noun, in which it typically carries a meaning related to steps in a process, cycles, or stages of development (as in “phases of the moon”).
Faze is generally used only as a verb, and means “to daunt or disconcert.” It often appears in negative expressions such as “it didn’t faze her a bit” or “nothing fazes him.”
Synonyms
Examples of faze in a Sentence
William Mullane, USA TODAY, 29 Nov. 2024
Now, bitcoin is at the doorstep of $100,000 and investors do not appear to be fazed by gravity or any cautionary tales of the cryptocurrencies history of volatility.
—CBS News, 21 Nov. 2024
Located at the end of a six-mile dirt track which traversed the all-but-uninhabited northern half of the thirty-mile-long island, Barnhill, even with its lack of modern facilities, didn’t seem to faze Orwell.
—Rob Crossan, JSTOR Daily, 15 Nov. 2024
It was explained that a party was taking place, which didn't faze him.
—Caroline Thayer, Fox News, 12 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Faze.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/faze. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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