Library / English Dictionary

GLINT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A spatially localized brightness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("glint" is a kind of...):

brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A momentary flash of light

Synonyms:

flicker; glint; spark

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("glint" is a kind of...):

flash (a sudden intense burst of radiant energy)

Derivation:

glint (be shiny, as if wet)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be shiny, as if wet

Example:

His eyes were glistening

Synonyms:

gleam; glint; glisten; glitter; shine

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "glint" is one way to...):

appear; look; seem (give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "glint"):

spangle (glitter as if covered with spangles)

shimmer (give off a shimmering reflection, as of silk)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence examples:

Lights glint on the horizon

The horizon is glinting with lights

Derivation:

glint (a momentary flash of light)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Throw a glance at; take a brief look at

Example:

I only peeked--I didn't see anything interesting

Synonyms:

glance; glint; peek

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "glint" is one way to...):

look (perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

Away they drove down the long green glade—bay horses, black and gray, riders clad in every shade of velvet, fur, or silk, with glint of brazen horn and flash of knife and spear.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I noticed, also, whenever one, with a show of fight, tried to break past, that her eyes glinted and showed bright, and she rapped it smartly with her club.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Just see how it glints and sparkles.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Womble looked with quick suspicion at Theresa and caught in her eyes a glint of pleased surprise.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

And for the moment the apparition of the gale rose before his eyes—a gale at night, with a clear sky and under a full moon, the huge seas glinting coldly in the moonlight.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As he turned towards us the glint of the light showed me that he was wearing glasses.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I looked down at the brown glory of her hair, glinting gems in the sunshine far more precious to me than those in the treasure-chests of kings.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Long, glinting dragonflies shot across the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The dominant colour was grey, and yet there was to it a faint reddish hue—a hue that was baffling, that appeared and disappeared, that was more like an illusion of the vision, now grey, distinctly grey, and again giving hints and glints of a vague redness of colour not classifiable in terms of ordinary experience.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"An' now I'll do me duty to God," he murmured. He turned his head toward Edith. "Read to me," he said, "from the book;" then added, with a glint of playfulness, "Mayhap 'twill help me to forget the bunk."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)