the property of being smooth and shiny
"The newly polished marble floor had a beautiful gloss that reflected the sunlight."
A surface shine or luster.
"The editor added glosses to the ancient manuscript to clarify obscure terms for modern readers."
A brief explanatory note or translation of a foreign, archaic, technical, difficult, complex, or uncommon expression, inserted after the original, in the margin of a document, or between lines of a text.
In plain English: A gloss is a thin, shiny layer of polish applied to something's surface to make it look smooth and attractive.
"She applied gloss to her lips before going out for dinner."
give a shine or gloss to, usually by rubbing
"She polished her shoes until she could see her reflection in them after applying a generous coat of wax and buffing it vigorously."
provide an interlinear translation of a word or phrase
"The linguist added a gloss to each line of the ancient manuscript to show the modern equivalent of every obscure term."
To give a gloss or sheen to.
"The editor added a final gloss to the ancient manuscript before publishing it."
To add a gloss to (a text).
In plain English: To gloss something means to make its surface shiny and smooth, often by applying polish or wax.
"She glossed over the details in her report to avoid conflict."
Probably from a North Germanic language, compare Icelandic glossi ("spark, flame"), glossa ("to flame"); or perhaps from dialectal Dutch gloos ("a glow, flare"), related to West Frisian gloeze ("a glow"), Middle Low German glȫsen ("to smoulder, glow"), German glosen ("to smoulder"); ultimately from Proto-Germanic glus- ("to glow, shine"), from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰel- ("to flourish; be green or yellow"). More at glow.