glance
UK /ɡlɑːns/ · US /ɡlæns/ verb, noun
Forms glances glancing glanced glancest glancedst glanceth glaunce
- verb To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.
- verb To look briefly at (something).
- verb To cause (light) to gleam or sparkle.
- verb (also figuratively) To cause (something) to move obliquely.
- verb (ball games) To hit (a ball) lightly, causing it to move in another direction.
- verb (cricket) To hit (a ball) with a bat held in a slanted manner; also, to play such a stroke against (the bowler).
- verb (figuratively) To communicate (something) using the eyes.
- verb To touch (something) lightly or obliquely; to graze.
- noun (also figuratively) A brief or cursory look.
- noun (also figuratively) A quick movement that catches light, and causes a flash or glitter; also, the flash or glitter.
- noun (cricket) A stroke in which the ball is hit with a bat held in a slanted manner.
- noun (ichthyology) Of certain juvenile fish, chiefly of the Cichlidae family: an act of rapidly touching the side of its parent's body, usually to feed on mucus.
- noun An act of striking and flying off in an oblique direction; a deflection.
- noun (figuratively) An incidental or passing allusion or thought, often unfavourable, expressed on a topic.
- noun (obsolete except in the names of certain minerals) Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre. “copper glance silver glance”
Synonyms
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenchen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; of a person: to turn quickly aside, dodge”) [and other forms], a blend of:
* Old French glacier, glachier, glaichier (“to slide; to slip”) (whence also Middle English glacen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; to glide”)), from glace (“frozen water, ice”) (from Vulgar Latin *glacia, from Latin glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin, + -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); and
* Old French guenchir, ganchir (“to avoid; to change direction; to elude, evade”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wankijan (“to move aside; to stagger, sway; to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bend”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
The sense "to look briefly (at something)" is probably due to partial conflation with Middle English glenten (“to look askance”)—the ancestor of English glint—in the Middle English period. This conflation may also have reinforced the medial -n-. See English glint
From Late Middle English glaunce (compare glaunce-ore (“type of ore; lead ore used for glazing pottery (?)”)), borrowed from Middle High German glanz (“(adjective) gleaming, glittering, sparkling; (noun) a gleam, glitter, sparkle”), from Old High German glanz (“bright”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlend-.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sudden flash of light or splendor.
- noun A quick cast of the eyes; a quick or a casual look; a swift survey; a glimpse.
- verb To shoot or emit a flash of light; to shine; to flash.
- verb To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
Etymology [Akin to D. glans luster, brightness, G. glanz, Sw. glans, D. glands brightness, glimpse. Cf. Gleen, Glint, Glitter, and Glance a mineral.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “glance”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details