glance

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.

   • Deare heart forbeare to glance thine eye aſide, / What needſt thou wound with cunning when thy might / Is more then my ore-preſt defence can bide?
   • Vivian glanced a look, which would have been annihilation to any one, not a freeholder of five hundred acres.
   • He, however, blenched not a step, but glancing his severe eye round the group, which half encompassed him, at last bent it sternly on Sir Edmund Andros.
2. 2

   To look briefly at (something).

   • A horseman rode up as he spoke, and gave a letter. Claverhouse glanced it over, laughed scornfully, bade him tell his master to send his prisoners to Edinburgh, for there was no answer; […]
3. 3

   To cause (light) to gleam or sparkle.

   • The bink, with its usual arrangement of pewter and earthenware, which was most strictly and critically clean, glanced back the flame of the lamp merrily from one side of the apartment.
4. ›+ 18 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To cause (something) to move obliquely.

      • One morning as I lay in my bed, a ſtrong motion was ſuddenly glanced into my thoughts of going to London; I aroſe and betook me to the way, […]
      • [S]hould we croſs them, tho they ſhould ſee Shoals of Fiſh, or Turtle, or the like, they will purpoſely ſtrike their Harpoons and Turtle-irons aſide, or ſo glance them as to kill nothing.
   2. 5

      To communicate (something) using the eyes.

      • [T]here his Eye took diſtant Aim, / And glanc'd Reſpect to that bright Dame, […]
      • As if there were no glowing eye i’ the world, / To glance straight inspiration to my brain, / No glorious heart to give mine twice the beats!
   3. 6

      To touch (something) lightly or obliquely

      To touch (something) lightly or obliquely; to graze.

      • Alone, it was the ſubiect of my Theame: / In company I often glanced it: / Still did I tell him, it was vilde and bad.
      • Afterwards I tooke a walke in yᵉ King’s gardens, where I observ’d that the Mall gos the whole square thereof next yᵉ wall, and bends with an angle so made as to glace [glance] yᵉ hall; the angle is of stone.
   4. 7

      To make an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourably, on (a topic)

      To make an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourably, on (a topic); also, to make (an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourable).

      • [T]hey rush upon him, and he narrowly escapes killing or ducking, for having ventured to glance a censure at the General.
   5. 8

      To strike and fly off in an oblique direction

      To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.

      • A has a little gald me I confeſſe: / And as the Ieſt did glaunce awaie from me, […]
      • I am glad yet your arrow hath glanced.
      • On mee the Curſe aſlope / Glanc'd on the ground, with labour I muſt earne / My bread; what harm? Idleneſs had bin worſe; […]
   6. 9

      Of light, etc.

      Of light, etc.: to gleam, to sparkle.

      • She watched the spring sunlight glancing on the water of the pond.
      • [T]hou [God] didſt call, thou didſt cry, thou didſt break my Deafneſs, thou glancedſt, thou didſt ſhine, thou chaſeſt away my Darkneſs.
      • From art, from nature, from the schools, / Let random influences glance, / Like light in many a shiver’d lance, / That breaks about the dappled pools: […]
   7. 10

      Of a thing

      Of a thing: to move in a way that catches light, and flash or glitter.

      • In thee freſh brooks, and ſoft ſtreams glance / And all my fountains clear.
      • [A] driving daſhing rain, / Peal upon peal redoubling all around, / Shakes it again and faſter to the ground, / Now flaſhing wide, now glancing as in play, / Swift beyond thought the light’nings dart away; […]
      • Were there no stockings of Zetland wool soft enough for these pretty feet and ancles, that glance so white in the moon-beam?
   8. 11

      Often followed by at

      Often followed by at: of the eyes or a person: to look briefly.

      • She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror.
      • The Poets eye, in a fine frenzy, rolling, doth glance / From heauen to earth, from earth to heauen.
   9. 12

      Followed by by

      Followed by by: to pass near without coming into contact.

      • Some have digged deep, yet glanced by the Royal Vein; and a Man may come unto the Pericardium, but not the Heart of Truth.
   10. 13

       To move quickly

       To move quickly; to dart, to shoot.

       • Why is my verſe ſo barren of new pride? / So far from variation or quicke change? / Why with the time do I not glance aſide / To new found methods, and to compounds ſtrange?
       • [D]are / They [souls] paſſe the outſide and venture ſo farre / As into the depth of the ſouls ſubſtance? / […] / If that; the object gone, away thoſe forms do glance.
       • And all along the Forum, and up the Sacred Street, / His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.
   11. 14

       A brief or cursory look.

       • Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brow, / And dart not ſcornefull glances from thoſe eies, / To wound thy Lord, thy King, thy Gouernour.
       • Hard to ſeeme wonne: but I was wonne my Lord / With the firſt glance; […]
       • [H]is ſupercilious glances grew humbled, yea, his dazeling ſplendor (eclipſt in the ſetting [i.e., death] of his Maſter) becomes quickly darkned: […]
   12. 15

       A quick movement that catches light, and causes a flash or glitter

       A quick movement that catches light, and causes a flash or glitter; also, the flash or glitter.

       • The ayre here is freſh and ſweet in the morning and towards Sunſet, but in the Sunnes perpendicular glances, wee found it hot and raging: […]
       • [E]ach Creek & Bay / With Frie innumerable ſwarme, and Shoales / Of Fiſh that with thir Finns and ſhining Scales / Glide under the green Wave, […] ſporting with quick glance / Show to the Sun thir wav’d coats dropt with Gold, […]
       • With winged expedition / Swift as the lightning glance he executes / His errand on the wicked, who ſurpris’d / Loſe their defence diſtracted and amaz’d.
   13. 16

       A stroke in which the ball is hit with a bat held in a slanted manner.

   14. 17

       Of certain juvenile fish, chiefly of the Cichlidae family

       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.

   15. 18

       An act of striking and flying off in an oblique direction

       An act of striking and flying off in an oblique direction; a deflection.

   16. 19

       An incidental or passing allusion or thought, often unfavourable, expressed on a topic.

       • [W]hen Marcus Philoſophus came in, Sylenus was grauelled, and out of countenance, not knowing where to carpe at him, ſaue at the laſt, he gaue a glaunce at his patience towards his wife.
   17. 20

       Ellipsis of glance coal (“any hard, lustrous coal such as anthracite”).

   18. 21

       Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre.

       • copper glance    silver glance

The neighborhood

• synonymglance
• synonymgleg
• synonymglimpse
• synonymshufti
• neighboronce-over
• neighborsquint
• neighborspot
• neighborlook
• neighborpeep
• neighborpeek