gleam
See also: glean
English
Etymology
- (noun) From Middle English gleme, from Old English glæm, from Proto-Germanic *glaimiz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley-.
- (verb) Derived from the Middle English noun form before the first millennium.
Pronunciation
Noun
gleam (plural gleams)
- A small or indistinct shaft or stream of light.
- 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Landlord’s Tale. Paul Revere’s Ride.”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 22:
- And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height / A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
- (figurative) A glimpse or hint; an indistinct sign of something.
- Brightness or shininess; splendor.
- 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
- In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen.
- 1966, Bobby Hebb (lyrics and music), “Sunny”:
- Sunny, thank you for that smile upon your face / Sunny, thank you, thank you for the gleam that flows its grace
Translations
small shaft or stream of light
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glimpse or indistinct sign
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brightness or splendor
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Verb
gleam (third-person singular simple present gleams, present participle gleaming, simple past and past participle gleamed) (intransitive)
- To shine; to glitter; to glisten.
- To be briefly but strongly apparent.
- (obsolete, falconry) To disgorge filth, as a hawk.
Translations
to shine, glitter, or glisten
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to be briefly but strongly apparent
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See also
References
- “gleam”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
- “gleam”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- "gleam" in On-line Medical Dictionary, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997–2005.
- "gleam" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰley-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/iːm
- Rhymes:English/iːm/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Falconry
- en:Light