▪ I. glister, n.
(ˈglɪstə(r))
[f. the vb.]
1. A glistering; a bright light, brilliance, lustre.
| 1535 Coverdale Ezek. i. 10 The fyre gaue a glistre, and out off the fyre there wente lighteninge. c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon xi. 33 Ere the morning starre Sends out his glorious glister on the North. 1647 H. More Insomn. Philos. ix. Philos. Poems 325 Half therefore just of this dark Orb was dight With goodly glistre and fair golden rayes. 1841 Thackeray Men & Pictures 99 Fair was the sight..and bright the river's glister. 1884 C. E. Craddock In Tennessee Mts. viii. 315 She caught a glimpse of..the glister of a great lucent, tremulous star. |
| fig. a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. i. Wks. 1846 I. 292 The glister of the proffeit, that was judged heirof to have ensewed to Scotishmen at the first sight blynded mony menis eyis. a 1659 Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) I. iv. 48 Outward Glister and Pomp. 1718 Entertainer xxii. 146 'Tis a World of Glister that we live in. 1759 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) III. App. 814 The false glister catches the eye, and leaves no room..for the durable beauties of solid sense and lively passion. |
2. Min. = glist n. 2.
| 1722 Phil. Trans. (Lowe's Abridgem.) 568 Glister, blood red and black. |
Hence ˈglistery a. rare [-y1], full of glister.
| 1806 Struthers House Mourning i. Wks. 1850 I. 77 His hope, the self-deceiver's transient gleam That, glistery, glimmers on the dazzled eye. |
▪ II. glister, v. arch. and dial.
(ˈglɪstə(r))
Forms: 4 glystre, 4–6 glistre, (5 glistere), 4–7 glyster, 4– glister.
[Corresponds to MLG. glistern, MDu., Du. glisteren; f. root *glis- (see glise v.) + suffixes -t- and -er5.]
intr. To sparkle; to glitter; to be brilliant.
The word is obsolete in ordinary colloq. use (though preserved in dialects); by recent writers employed with reminiscence of Shakes. or the Bible in the literal sense only.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 4438 Ys browes were boþe rowe and grete..ys eȝene depe, & glystryd as þ⊇ glede. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 252 The water glistred over all. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. (Roxb.) 150 A croked hors never the better is entecchede Althoughe his bridelle glistre of golde & shyne. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) p. lxx, All the walles within of fynest golde..Glistering as bright as Phoebus orient. 1535 Coverdale 4 (2) Esdras x. 25 Hir face dyd shyne & glyster. 1542 Becon Potation Lent B iij b, The vnfruytfull fygge tree glystereth it neuer so pleasantly with grene leaues, shall be cursed & commytted vnto hell fyre. 1670–98 R. Lassels Voy. Italy ii. 159 When the sun shines upon it, you may see it glister two miles off. 1725 Swift Wood's Petition Wks. 1755 IV. i. 284 Buy up my half-pence so fine..Observe how they glister and shine. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 236 On the tops of several of these mountains, I have observed tufts of grass deeply tinctured by the mineral exhalations from the earth; and on the sides, they glistered from the same cause. 1808 Scott Marm. ii. xxi, It did a ghastly contrast bear To those bright ringlets glistering fair. 1857–8 Sears Athan. vi. 52 Sandy plains which burn and glister under an orient sun. 1870–74 J. Thomson City of Dreadf. Nt. i. iv, Waste marshes shine and glister to the moon. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Glister, to glisten. |
| fig. 1535 Coverdale Dan. xii. 3 The wyse..shal glister as the shyninge of heauen. 1560 Becon Catech. Wks. 1564 I. 294 The godles and heathenishe people..outwardly glistered wyth goodly vertues. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 53 Thunder in words and glister in works. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iii. ii. 171 How he glisters Through my Rust? a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 45 He went to Oxford where for some years he glistered in the oratoric and poetic sphere. 1685 Gracian's Courtiers Orac. 37 That Superiority glisters in all sorts of people, but much more in great men. |
b. Proverb. (Cf. glitter v. 1 b.)
(In mod. use ‘glitters’ is commonly substituted for glisters.)
| 1553 Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 207 All is not golde that glistereth. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. vii. 65. 1649 Milton Eikon. viii. (1851) 395 They think all is gold of pietie that doth but glister with a shew of Zeale. 1650 T. Hubbert Pill Formality 36 Seriously trie before we choose, lest we take all for gold that glisters. a 1771 Gray Death Fav. Cat. vii, Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes..is lawful prize..Nor all that glisters, gold. 1802 Canning Poet. Wks. (1827) 44. |
† c. quasi-trans. To send forth with glitter.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iii. (1590) 281 With eies which glistered forth beames of disdaine. |
Hence † ˈglisterer, one who glisters, a showy person.
| 1628 Earle Microcosm., Downe-right Scholler (Arb.) 42 Hee shall out ballance those glisterers as far as a solid substance do's a feather, or Gold Gold-lace. |
▪ III. glister
obs. or dial. f. clyster.