glance

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English[edit]

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Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English glacen (“to graze, strike a glancing blow”), from Old French glacier (“to slip, make slippery”). Sense of "look quickly" (first recorded 1580s) probably was influenced in form and meaning by Middle English glenten (“to look askance”). See glint.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

glance (third-person singular simple present glances, present participle glancing, simple past and past participle glanced)

  1. (intransitive) To look briefly (at something).
    She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror.
  2. (intransitive) To graze a surface.
  3. To sparkle.
    The spring sunlight was glancing on the water of the pond.
    • 1849, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, OCLC 3968433, (please specify |part=prologue or epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):
      From art, from nature, from the schools, / Let random influences glance, / Like light in many a shivered lance, / That breaks about the dappled pools.
  4. To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle.
    • 1842, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome/Virginia:
      And all along the forum and up the sacred seat, / His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.
  5. To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
  6. (soccer) To hit lightly with the head, make a deft header.
    • 2011 January 18, “Wolverhampton 5 - 0 Doncaster”, in BBC‎[1]:
      Doncaster paid the price two minutes later when Doyle sent Hunt away down the left and his pinpoint cross was glanced in by Fletcher for his sixth goal of the season.
  7. To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude; to hint; often with at.

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Derived terms

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

glance (countable and uncountable, plural glances)

  1. A brief or cursory look.
    • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:
      Dart not scornful glances from those eyes.
    • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:
      Warwick left the undertaker's shop and retraced his steps until he had passed the lawyer's office, toward which he threw an affectionate glance.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.
  2. A deflection.
  3. (cricket) A stroke in which the ball is deflected to one side.
  4. A sudden flash of light or splendour.
  5. An incidental or passing thought or allusion.
    • (Can we date this quote by William Cowper and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      How fleet is a glance of the mind.
  6. (mineralogy) Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre.
    copper glance
    silver glance
  7. (mineralogy) Glance coal.
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms

Translations[edit]

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