▪ I. hint, n.
(hɪnt)
Also 7 hent.
[app. a deriv. of hent v. to lay hold of, seize, grasp; cf. hent n. The general notion appears to be something that is or may be seized or taken advantage of.]
† 1. a. An occasion; an opportunity. (In quot. 1621, ? something to lay hold of, a ‘handle’.) Obs.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 142 Wherein of Antars vast, and Desarts idle..It was my hint to speake. 1610 ― Temp. ii. i. 3 Our hint of woe Is common. 1611 ― Cymb. v. v. 172 Hearing vs praise our Loues of Italy..This Posthumus..tooke his hint, And..he began His Mistris picture. 1621 W. Sclater Tythes 199 Gaue euer man hent to his Argument from the matter of Abrahams Tithing? 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 14 ¶15 To watch the hints which conversation offers for the display of their particular attainments. 1768 Ross Helenore 102 (Jam.) For fear I lost the hint. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, It is my hint to speak. |
† b. Time, occasion (of action); moment (Sc.).
| a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams ii. (1692) 57 What colour and tincture you give them in that hint, you shall know them by it for many years after. 1768 Ross Helenore 98 (Jam.) And in a hint he claspt her hard and fast. |
2. a. A slight indication intended to be caught by the intelligent; a suggestion or implication conveyed in an indirect or covert manner.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 166 Vpon this hint I spake. 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. i, The least hint given him of his wife now will make him raile desperatly. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 82, I will give you some little hints of her shape and manner of growth. 1699 Burnet 39 Art. xxxi. (1700) 352 Here are not general Words, ambiguous Expressions, or remote Hints, but a Thread of a full and clear Discourse. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 31 ¶1 He had taken the Hint of it from several Performances which he had seen upon our Stage. 1759 Johnson Idler No. 46 ¶4 She loves a sharp girl that can take a hint. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 150 The king eagerly caught at the hint. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xiv, And I perceived no touch of change, No hint of death in all his frame. |
b. A small piece of practical information.
| 1777 P. Thicknesse Year's Journey II. 221 (heading) General hints to strangers who travel to France. 1807 R. Southey Lett. fr. England (1951) 348 The Monthly is more miscellaneous in its contents... All sorts of heretical opinions are started here, agricultural hints thrown out, and queries propounded of all kinds. 1830 Coleridge & Southey Devil's Walk 24 The Devil was charm'd, for it gave him a hint For improving the prisons of Hell. 1841 S. Ellis (title) Family secrets; or, Hints to those who would make home happy. 1872 Young Englishwoman Nov. 598 Household hints for young housewives. 1926 R. Macaulay Crewe Train ii. x. 181 Audrey gave them household hints, about how to keep the kettle from furring, and the stove and the milk jar from smelling. 1972 Guardian 29 Mar. 11/5 Angela Kay's Household Hints..has a pretty good selection of useful answers to some eight hundred possible problems. |
3. Comb. (nonce-wds.)
| 1671 Glanvill Disc. M. Stubbe 34 Put these Passages into your Hint-box, or into your Snuff-box, if you think fit. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 294 The Hint-Keeper of Gresham College is the only competent Judge to decide the Controversy. |
▪ II. hint, v.
(hɪnt)
[f. hint n., sense 2.]
1. trans. To give a hint of; to suggest or indicate slightly, so that one's meaning may be caught by the intelligent. a. with simple obj.
| 1648 Hunting of Fox 13 It will not be amisse to hint both unto you. 1655 J. Jane in Nicholas Papers (Camden) III. 228 The reason I formerly hinted to you. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 209 Which..may hint us the reason of that so much admired appearance..in mother of Pearl-shells. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 241 The Doctor hinted it to me. 1790 Paley Horæ Paul. Rom. i. 10 Nothing is yet said or hinted concerning the place. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 387 Oates..had hinted a suspicion that the Jesuits were at the bottom of the scheme. |
b. with obj. clause.
| 1665 Hooke Microgr. 157 To hint that it is not safe to conclude any thing to be positively this or that. 1743 Johnson Let. to Cave Aug. in Boswell, As you hinted to me that you had many calls for money. 1832 G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 174 It was hinted to the elderly Frenchman that their nocturnal departure boded no good. |
c. With direct speech as obj.
| 1843 Dickens Christmas Carol iii. 107 ‘I'm sure he is very rich, Fred,’ hinted Scrooge's niece. 1891 C. Graves Field of Tares 41 ‘I have been a stranger to the neighborhood,’ returned the other, ‘for years.’ ‘Many years?’ hinted Mr. Brinnilow. |
2. a. intr. hint at: to make a slight, but intelligible suggestion of; = 1 a.
| 1697 Addison Pref. Dryden's Georg. (1721) 204 Agriculture ought to be some way hinted at throughout the whole Poem. 1735 Ld. Hardwicke in W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (1817) II. 986, I never heard such a justification in an action for a libel even hinted at. 1885 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 218 The spectator's imagination completes what the artist merely hints at. |
b. With other constructions; also absol.
| 1865 Punch 21 Jan. 32 If I wos allowed to 'int, Ladies, I shud say, Torse Hup! 1891 Hardy Group of Noble Dames 77 Her husband's tutor was found to hint very strongly against such a step. 1894 G. du Maurier Trilby III. vii. 178 The night above was dark, but ‘star⁓dials hinted of morn’. |
† c. To give a hint to (a person). Obs. rare.
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Ep. Ded. A iij, We were hinted by the occasion, not catched the opportunity to write of old things, or intrude upon the Antiquary. |
3. quasi-trans. (nonce-uses.) To send off, do away, by a hint.
| 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay ii, I was therefore ‘hinted off’. 1830 Fraser's Mag. II. 182 He hints away every merit poor old Sherry could claim. |
Hence hinted ppl. a. (whence hintedly adv.); hinting vbl. n. and ppl. a. (whence hintingly adv.).
| 1820 L. Hunt Indicator No. 15 (1822) I. 115 The more obscure and awful hintings of the world unknown. a 1845 Hood Lamia i. 55 If my brows, Or any hinting feature, show dislike. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. ii. v. §10 She always tells a story, however hintedly and vaguely. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iv. (1858) 191 There is a peculiar, hinted, pathetic sweetness and melody. 1892 Cassell's Fam. Mag. Aug. 536/1 ‘[It] might as well stand in my bedroom’, Aston hintingly said. |
▪ III. hint
see hent v. and n., hind a.