Link Centre Dictionary

glance

UK/ɡlɑːns/ US/ɡlæns/ fairly common
verb (2) noun (1)

verb

1.

throw a glance at; take a brief look at

  • “She only glanced at the paper”
  • “I only peeked--I didn”
Synonyms
2.

rebound after hitting

  • “The car caromed off several lampposts”
Synonyms

noun

1.

Origin

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

Phrases

  • antimony glance
  • at a glance
  • at first glance
  • bismuth glance
  • coal glance
  • cobalt glance
  • copper glance
  • glance away
  • glance off
  • glance over
  • iron glance
  • lead glance

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.