▪ I. glint, n.1
(glɪnt)
See also glent.
[f. the vb.
The text of the first quot. is insecure, and the existence of the word before 19th c. is therefore doubtful.]
1. A gleam; a faint or momentary appearance of light or of some lustrous object.
| a 1541 Wyatt Ps. cxliii. Prol. 13 The glint of light, that in the air doth lome, Man redeemeth. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 163 Their daughters..who have been singing at their domestic toils, frae the earliest glint o' morn. 1861 Court Life Naples II. 255 The last glint of the lamp as we drove off showed me the face of my husband. 1865 Pall Mall G. 19 June 4 Glints of blue sky come through the tall open windows. 1885 A. J. C. Hare Russia iii. 128 The detached groups of..birches and firs, and the lovely glints of sea between them. |
| fig. 1871 C. Gibbon Lack of Gold x, Can you not give a poor soul one glint of consolation? |
b. Shining appearance; shine.
| 1844 Lowell Ghost-seer Poet. Wks. (1879) 84 But it has the cold, hard glint Of new dollars from the mint. |
2. A passing look, a glance; a momentary view, glimpse. Chiefly Sc. or north.
| 1832–53 Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs) Ser. i. 43 When ilka glint, conveys a hint To tak a smack—before folk. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Glint, a glimpse. ‘I nobbut just got a glint o' my lady as she was walkin' doon to th' chech.’ 1883 Black Shandon Bells xxx, I..was having a glint at the newspaper. 1889 Barrie Window in Thrums 86 They gie ye a glint o' their een. |
b. = gliff n. 1 b.
| 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Ruth I. iv. 101 She's a pretty creature, with a glint of her mother about her. |
▪ II. glint, n.2 Geol.
(glɪnt)
[ad. Sw. klint cliff, Norw. klint cliff by the sea: cogn. w. clint n.]
An escarpment of almost horizontal strata formed as a result of denudation of the adjacent lower rocks. Also attrib., as glint lake, a lake formed by glacial excavation at a glint; glint line, the line followed by a glint, esp. that on the edge of the Baltic shield.
| 1906 H. Sollas tr. Suess's Face of Earth ii. 65 In Russia the feature formed by these basset edges is known as the glint, and we shall in future employ this term for long lines of escarpment formed of flat-lying beds, when they are due, not to fracture, but to denudation. The glint of each of the two shields is marked by a long series of freshwater lakes. Ibid., The glint line of the Baltic shield runs..through the gulf of Finland, which also has the position of a glint lake. 1939 Geogr. Jrnl. XCIII. 234 The large glint lakes bordering the Canadian Shield. 1959 Wooldridge & Morgan Outl. Geomorphol. (ed. 2) vi. 81 The south-eastern limit in Scandinavia [of the Caledonian ranges] is the famous ‘glint-line’, along which the folded terrain adjoins the Baltic or Fenno-Scandian block, which functioned as the hinterland in the original folding. |
▪ III. † glint, a. Obs.
[Cf. Sw. (dial.) glinta to slip on ice: see glint v.]
Slippery.
| c 1475 Partenay 4934 Fro that place glint þat full hy tho was, Don vppon the Roch A fall gan purchas. 1523 Skelton Garl. Laurell 572 Go softly, she sayd, the stones be full glint. |
▪ IV. glint, v.
(glɪnt)
[Rare in the 15th c.; subsequently first in Sc. writers of the 18th c.; it has been adopted into English literary use in the present century. Prob. an altered form of the earlier glent v., which the rime shows to have been the original reading in two of the 15th c. passages; cf. hint as the northern form of hent v.]
1. intr. To move quickly, esp. obliquely; to glance aside; = glent v. 1, 1 b.
| c 1440 Partonope 1036 Suche a dynt That thurgh his hede hit glynt. c 1440 Generydes 2481 With his swerd when that his stroke glynt Owt of ther sadill full redely they went. 1794 Burns ‘How Long and dreary’, How slow ye move, ye heavy hours!..It was na sae ye glinted by, When I was wi' my dearie. a 1800 in Scott Minstr. Scott. Bord. (1803) III. 338 Ae fire-flaught darted through the rain..and glinted o'er the raging main. 1848 Lytton Harold iv. iii, From the mirth of sunny Leofwine sorrow glints aside. |
2. To shine with a flashing light; to glance, gleam, glitter. Also with forth.
| c 1440 Generydes 6088 The fyre sparkelid and fro the harneys glynt [rime-word went]. 1787 Burns Holy Fair i, The risin' sun owre Galston muirs Wi' glorious light was glintin. 1801 Macneill Poems (1844) 114 The sun-beams glint sae cheerfu'. 1828 [Aird] Buy a Broom i, in Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 712/1 Sickles were seen glinting on the far yellow uplands. 1839 Bailey Festus vi. (1848) 57 Leaves Between which the light glints. 1859 Dickens T. Two Cities i. iv, The specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea. 1860 G. J. Whyte-Melville Holmby House 269 As the sun glinted back from a dozen of carbines. 1863 M. Taylor Tara xiii, The sun's gleams..glinting from spear-head, morion, and steel armour..lighted up faces of varied character. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Th' sun glinted upo' th' glass winders that bad that I was omust blind wi' it. 1879 G. Macdonald P. Faber III. iii. 38 A few silvery threads glinted in his hair. 1879 J. Long æneid viii. 29 As when the sunshine or the moonlight clear, Dancing on water in a brazen vat, Glints everywhere. 1888 Rider Haggard Col. Quaritch vii, His face working with passion and his grey eyes glinting. |
| fig. 1865 Reader Feb. 158/2 The magic effects that glint forth from his quaint words and phrases. |
b. trans. (causatively).
| 1844 Lowell Poet. Wks. (1879) 373 The willow..glints his steely aglets in the sun. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton ii. 15 The window of some..tavern glints back the light. 1889 19th Cent. Oct. 684 The morning sun..is glinted back, as from a hundred heliographs from the golden domes on your left. 1893 Burrell & Cuthell Indian Memories 174 The sun glinted the boughs overhead. |
3. intr. To peep, take a glance. Cf. glent v. 2.
| 1888 Century Mag. XXXV. 448 Glinting around, [he] asked for the tenth time if [etc.]. 1891 Hartland Gloss. s.v., Doan' ee stan' there glintin' roun' the cornder. |
b. quasi-trans. To glance (the eye).
| 1832–53 W. Cross in Whistle-binkie (Scot. Songs) Ser. iii. 18 She glintit her e'e at him slyly. |
Hence ˈglinted, ˈglinting ppl. adjs.
| 1868 Sill Serenity i. Poems 100 Shimmering and trembling, Doth the glinted star-shine Sparkle and cease. 1883 Daily News 22 Sept. 3/4 Those glinting blue-green feathers which originate on the drake's neck and breast. 1884 St. James's Gaz. 10 May 6/2 The glinting silver of the statuette. 1889 Barrie Window in Thrums 178 But let Kitty, or any other maid, cast a glinting eye on Jamie. |