dint

See also: di'n't

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnt

Etymology 1

From Middle English dint, dent, dünt, from Old English dynt (“dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe; the mark left by a blow; the sound or noise made by a blow, thud”), from Proto-Germanic *duntiz (“a blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to strike, hit”). Cognate with (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Swedish dialectal dunt, Icelandic dyntr (“a dint”). More at dent.

Alternative forms

• dunt

Noun

dint (countable and uncountable, plural dints)

1. (obsolete) A blow, stroke, especially dealt in a fight.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Much daunted with that dint, her sence was dazd […]

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XI, xxxi:

     Between them cross-bows stood, and engines wrought / To cast a stone, a quarry, or a dart, // From whence, like thunder's dint, or lightnings new, / Against the bulwarks stones and lances flew.

2. Force, power; especially in by dint of.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel / The dint of pity

   • 1805, Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, XVIII:

     It was by dint of passing strength / That he moved the massy stone at length.

3. The mark left by a blow; an indentation or impression made by violence; a dent.
   • 1860, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Lancelot and Elaine”, in Idylls of the King:

     and read the naked shield, […] Of every dint a sword had beaten in it, / And every scratch a lance had made upon it

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Derived terms

• by dint of

Translations

a dent

• Irish: ding f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: wgięcie n
• Russian: сле́д (ru) m (sléd), вмя́тина (ru) f (vmjátina), отпеча́ток (ru) m (otpečátok)

Verb

dint (third-person singular simple present dints, present participle dinting, simple past and past participle dinted)

1. To dent.
   • 1854, W. Harrison Ainsworth, The Star-Chamber, Volume 2‎^[1]:

     Your helmet was dinted in as if by a great shot.

   • 1915, Jeffery Farnol, Beltane The Smith‎^[2]:

     And, in that moment came one, fierce and wild of aspect, in dinted casque and rusty mail who stood and watched--ah God!

Etymology 2

Contraction

dint

1. Eye dialect spelling of didn’t.

Anagrams

• NDTI, idn't, tind

---

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin dēns, dentem. Compare Italian dente, Romansch dent, Venetian dénte, Romanian dinte, French dent, Spanish diente.

Noun

dint m (plural dinčh)

1. tooth

Derived terms

• dintidure

---

Middle English

FWOTD – 26 November 2019

Alternative forms

• dent, dente, dunt, dynt, dynte, dont, dount, dinnt

Etymology

From Old English dynt, from Proto-Germanic *duntiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dint/, /dɛnt/, /dunt/

Noun

dint (plural dintes or (Early ME) dunten)

1. The landing of a weapon; a blow or stroke.

   • a. 1375, Gawain Poet, Sir Gawayn and þe Grene Knyȝt, page 118r, lines 2110-2117:

     Forþy I ſay þe, as ſoþe as ȝe in ſadel ſitte, / Com ȝe þere, ȝe be kylled, may þe knyȝt rede, / Trawe ȝe me þat trwely, þaȝ ȝe had twenty lyues / to ſpende. / He hatz wonyd here ful ȝore / On bent much baret bende / Aȝayn his dyntez ſore / Ȝe may not yow defende

     So I say to you, as sure as you sit in your saddle: / If you come there, you'll be killed if he wills, / trust me about that truely, like you had twenty lives / to spend. / He has lived here a long time; / when he pulls his bow, much conflict begins. / Against his powerful blows, / you won't be able to defend yourself.

2. (by extension) Warfare, battle; the use of weaponry.
3. The strike, landing or force of a tool or other item hitting something.
4. The striking or noise of thunder; a thunderclap.
5. (rare) A strike with one's limbs or body.
6. (rare) An injury resulting from a weapon's impact.

Derived terms

• dinten

Descendants

• English: dent, dint, dunt
• Scots: dunt, dont, dynt, dint, dent

References

• “dint, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-05-05.

---

Walloon

Etymology

From Old French dent, from Latin dēns, dentem.

Noun

dint f

1. (anatomy) tooth