glint

English

Etymology

15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint; from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”); probably alteration of Old Norse ; 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡlɪnt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnt

Noun

glint (plural glints)

1. 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

• glint in the milkman's eye

Translations

Adjective

glint (comparative more glint, superlative most glint)

1. (archaic, Shropshire, of a blade) Not sharp; dull.

   The knife is glint.

Verb

glint (third-person singular simple present glints, present participle glinting, simple past and past participle glinted)

1. (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.

2. (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'

3. (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 […]

4. (archaic, Shropshire, transitive) To dry; to wither.

   The sun glints grass and corn.

Translations

References

• Wright, Joseph (1900) The English Dialect Dictionary‎, volume 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages 644–645