glint
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint; from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”); probably alteration of Old Norse [Term?]; from Middle High German glinzen; from Proto-Germanic *glintaną, *glintjaną; from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognate with Swedish glänta, glinta (“to slip, slide, gleam, shine”), Swedish glimt. Reintroduced into literary English by Robert Burns.[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
glint (plural glints)
- A short flash of light.
- I saw the glint of metal as he raised the gun.
- 1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 283:
- To be plunged straight into the old nut and bolt shop, as was the writer's experience, during a spell of cloudless June Weather was a real hardship, and the mind kept flitting back to the glint of blue water under willow trees and the click of ball on bat on a quiet spacious greensward.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
short flash of light
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Adjective[edit]
glint (comparative more glint, superlative most glint)
- (archaic, Shropshire, of a blade) Not sharp; dull.
- The knife is glint.
Verb[edit]
glint (third-person singular simple present glints, present participle glinting, simple past and past participle glinted)
- (intransitive) To flash or gleam briefly.
- A wedding ring glinted on her finger.
- 1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 110:
- Thor glared at him [...] what little light there was in the place mustered its forces briefly to glint menacingly off the horns of his helmet.
- (intransitive) To glance; to peep forth, as a flower from the bud; to glitter.
- 1785, Robert Burns, The Holy Fair
- The rising sun owre Galston muirs, / Wi' glorious light was glintin'
- 1785, Robert Burns, The Holy Fair
- (transitive) To cause to flash or gleam; to reflect.
- 1980, Inquiry Magazine
- The scientists theorized that a meteoroid, ranging in size from a speck of dust to a marble, might have struck the satellite and chipped off a bit of debris that glinted a ray of sun back on the Vela's second sensor […]
- 1980, Inquiry Magazine
- (archaic, Shropshire, transitive) To dry; to wither.
- The sun glints grass and corn.
Translations[edit]
to flash briefly
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References[edit]
- Wright, Joseph (1900) The English Dialect Dictionary[1], volume 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages 644–645
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “glint”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 20 January 2017: “from Scottish, where apparently it survived as an alteration of glent [...] Reintroduced into literary English by Burns.”.
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