glint

15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint, from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”), probably from Old Norse *glenta, from Proto-Germanic *glantijaną, causitive of Proto-Germanic *glintaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognate with Danish glente, Swedish glänta, Norwegian Nynorsk gletta (“to peep, look”), Middle High German glinzen; compare also Swedish glinta (“to slip, slide, gleam, shine”), Swedish glimt (“flash, glint, glimpse”), Norwegian Nynorsk glanta, gletta (“to glide, slip”). Reintroduced into literary English by Robert Burns.

• IPA^(key): /ɡlɪnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnt

glint (plural glints)

1. A short flash of light, usually when reflected off a shiny surface.

   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.

2. (obsolete) A brief look; a glance.
   • 1849, chapter V, in Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland, of Sunnyside.  , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, page 147:

     "My name is Elphinstone, ma'am," said the young man, and then he cleared his throat and gave a glint at Mary, and grew redder in the face than ever.

   • c. 1858, Charles Selby, The Bonnie Fish Wife: An Original Musical Interlude in One Act, Lacy's Acting edition, London: Thomas Hailes Lacy, Scene II, page 15:

     Are ye the gentleman that’s speering for my hayreens—they’re fresh this morning—cast a glint at them, sir, and you’ll say you neever saw rubies, emeralds, and silver, and gold, sparkle sa boneely as the finny jewels that dazzle ye in this wee basket.

   • 1875, Frederick Clifford, chapter XII, in The Agricultural Lock-out of 1874  , Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, page 281:

     “ I also remember the following dialogue in the Suffolk vernacular between a neighbouring farmer and his backus (¹) boy :—‘I sa, Mester?’ ‘ Well, bor.’ (²) ‘If thar ain't Sillett's owd razor-backed hogs broke out agin. That thar owd sarpint of a sow ha' got her snout under the gate, and lifted it off the jimmers, (³) and I ketched a glint (⁴) of the rest on 'em skrigglin' (⁵) thar way through the shruff (⁶) in the hedge holl (⁷) and making another gap right atwin (⁸) the stub-apple (⁹) and the touch-wood (¹⁰) tree, and tha ha' bin' a pamplin' (¹¹) all over the land, and rootin (¹²) up our taters, and not one on 'em ringled (¹³). Mester, I think we'd better pound 'em.'” (¹⁴)

• glint in the milkman's eye
• sunglint

glint (comparative more glint, superlative most glint)

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

   The knife is glint.

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, now uncommon) 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'

   • 1847 November 6, “Lilly Begg: A Tale of the Times of the Covenant”, in Hogg's Weekly Instructor, volume VI, number 141, page 168, column 1:

     There was Clavers and six wild dragoons standin’ ranged in a raw, wi’ their muskets in hand, and a form kneelin’ on the grass afore them. I saw the flash o’ the guns, and as I turned to glint at the mangled corpse, oh, mither!

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.

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