glance

UK /ɡlɑːns/US /ɡlæns/

verb 18
noun 8
forms 9
phrases 5

verb18

•
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? — 1609
•
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; […] — 1816
•
Often followed by at: of the eyes or a person: to look briefly.
- She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror.
•
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, […] — 1657
•
To hit (a ball) lightly, causing it to move in another direction.
- Doncaster paid the price two minutes later when [Kevin] Doyle sent [Stephen] Hunt away down the left and his pinpoint cross was glanced in by Fletcher for his sixth goal of the season. — 2011
To hit (a ball) with a bat held in a slanted manner; also, to play such a stroke against (the bowler).
•
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, […] — 1590
To hit a ball with a bat held in a slanted manner.
•
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. — 1824
•
Of light, etc.: to gleam, to sparkle.
- She watched the spring sunlight glancing on the water of the pond.
•
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. — 1673
•
(figurative) Often followed by at: of a topic: to make an incidental or passing reflection on, often unfavourably; to allude to; to hint at.
- You do not appear to me to recognize the gravity of your situation, or you would be more careful not to pejorate the same by words which glance upon the purity of justice. — 1892
•
(figurative) To communicate (something) using the eyes.
- [T]here his Eye took distant Aim, / And glanc'd Respect to that bright Dame, […] — 1718
Of certain juvenile fish, chiefly of the Cichlidae family: to rapidly touch the side of its parent's body, usually to feed on mucus.
•
(no longer used) 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. — 1825
•
(no longer used) 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. — 1594
•
(no longer used) 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. — 1716
•
(no longer used) 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? — 1609

noun8

•
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. — 1590
A stroke in which the ball is hit with a bat held in a slanted manner.
•
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: […] — 1638
Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre.
Ellipsis of glance coal (“any hard, lustrous coal such as anthracite”).
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.
(no longer used) An act of striking and flying off in an oblique direction; a deflection.
•
(figurative, no longer used) 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. — 1605

forms

glanc'd · glanc't · glanced · glancedst · yglaunst · glancing · glances · glanceth · glancest

Phrases with glance