dint

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪnt/
• (US)

  (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 Swedish dialectal dunt, Icelandic dyntr (“a dint”). Doublet of 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

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

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

   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “Book 10”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     His hands had made a dint, and hurt his maid; / Explored her limb by limb, and feared to find / So rude a gripe had left a livid mark behind.

Derived terms

• by dint of

Translations

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:

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

   • 1915, Jeffery Farnol, Beltane The Smith‎:

     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. Pronunciation spelling of didn’t.

References

Anagrams

• I'dn't, 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 dincj or dinčh)

1. tooth

Derived terms

• dintidure

Middle English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dint/, /dɛnt/, /dunt/

Noun

dint (plural dintes or (early) dinten)

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 truly, 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

Further reading

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

Old Irish

Etymology

Univerbation of di +‎ in

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Article

dint

1. of/from the sg
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 14^d10

     Is samlid léicfimmi-ni doïbsom aisndís dint ṡéns ⁊ din mórálus, manip écóir frisin stoir ad·fíadam-ni.

     It is thus we shall leave to them the exposition of the sense and the morality, if it is not at variance with the history that we relate.

Usage notes

Used before lenited s.

Romagnol

Pronunciation

• (Southeastern Romagnol):

• (Borderline Romagnol):

• (San Marino): IPA^(key):

Noun

dint m pl (San Marino)

1. plural of dèint (“tooth”)

Walloon

Etymology

From Old French dent, from Latin dēns, dentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛ̃/

Noun

dint f

1. (anatomy) tooth