glimpse /ˈɡlɪm(p)s/verb 6noun 5forms 3 verb6 •To see or view (someone, or something tangible) briefly and incompletely. •Chiefly followed by at or upon: to look at briefly and incompletely; to glance.The door always opens directly into the kitchen, without any vestibule; and, glimpsing in, you see that a cottager's life must be the very plainest and homeliest that ever was lived by men and women. — 1855 •(figurative) To perceive (something intangible) briefly and incompletely.I have only begun to glimpse the magnitude of the problem. •(rare) Sometimes followed by out: to provide a brief and incomplete look. •To shine with a faint, unsteady light; to glimmer, to shimmer. •(literary, no longer used) To appear or start to appear, especially faintly or unclearly; to dawn. noun5 •Chiefly followed by of: a brief and incomplete look.I only got a glimpse of the car, so I can tell you the colour but not the registration number. •(figurative) A faint or imprecise idea; an inkling.Let there be thistles, there are grapes; / If old things, there are new; / Ten thousand broken lights and shapes, / Yet glimpses of the true. — 1842 •(figurative, rare) A brief, unspecified amount of time; a moment.[…] Alwin smiled, / When aught that from his young lips archly fell / The gloomy film from Harold's eye beguiled; / And pleased for a glimpse appeared the woeful Childe. — 1809 •(no longer used) A brief, sudden flash of light; a glimmer.Sunk in his [Despair's] skull, his staring eyes did glovve, / That made him deadly looke, their glimpse did shovve / Like Cockatrices eyes, that sparks of poyson throvve. — 1610 •(no longer used) A faint (and often temporary) appearance; a tinge.Reuiued with a glimse of grace old sorowes to let fal, / The hidden straines I know and secret snares of loue: / How soone a loke wil print a thought, that neuer may remoue. — 1548 formsglimpsed · glimpsing · glimpses
