glimpse
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡlɪm(p)s/
rhymes: -ɪmps
Forms: form: glimpses
form: glimse
form: glympse
form: glinse
Etymology: The verb is derived from earlier glimse (obsolete), from Middle English glimsen (“to dazzle; to glisten; to glance with the eyes”), possibly from Old English *glimsian, from Proto-West Germanic *glimmisōjan, from Proto-Germanic *glimō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Doublet of glimmer.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
Middle Dutch glinsen (modern Dutch glinsteren (“to glint, glitter, shimmer, sparkle; to glance”), glimmen (“to gleam, shine”))
Middle High German glimsen (“to glow, smoulder”), glinsen (“to glimmer, shine”)
Middle Low German glinsen, glintzen, glinzen (“to shimmer, shine”)
Senses: examples: text: I only got a glimpse of the car, so I can tell you the colour but not the registration number.
text: [T]he Baſilike, whoſe eyes procure delight to the looker at the firſt glymſe, and death at the ſecond glaunce.
ref: 1580, Iohn Lyly [i.e., John Lyly], “Neither Thine, nor Hir Owne, Camilla”, in Euphues and His England. […], London: […] [Thomas East] for Gabriell Cawood, […], →OCLC, folio 72, verso:
text: But had thoſe vvits the vvonders of their dayes, / Or that ſvveete Teian Poet [Anacreon] vvhich did ſpend / His plenteous vaine in ſetting forth her [Venus's] prayſe, / Seene but a glims of this, vvhich I pretend, / Hovv vvondrouſly vvould he her face commend, […]
ref: 1596, Edm[und] Spenser, “An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie”, in Fowre Hymnes, London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 43:
text: All that could be gathered vvas, that he had lurked a vvhile about the out-ſide of the Tovvn, and that here and there one or other had a glimpſe of him as he did make his eſcape out of Manſoul, […]
ref: 1682, John Bunyan, “[No Incredulity Found in Mansoul]”, in The Holy War, Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the World. […], London: […] Dorman Newman […]; and Benjamin Alsop […], →OCLC, page 208:
text: [T]o the ſouth a ſmall opening led the eye to a glimpſe of the landſcape belovv, vvhich, ſeen beyond the dark javvs of the cliff, appeared free, and light, and gaily coloured, melting avvay into the blue and diſtant mountains.
ref: 1797, Ann Radcliffe, chapter XI, in The Italian, or The Confessional of the Black Penitents. A Romance. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) […], →OCLC, pages 303–304:
text: The moſſy pales that ſkirt the orchard-green, / Here hid by ſhrub-vvood, there by glimpſes ſeen; […]
ref: 1798, [Samuel Rogers], “An Epistle to a Friend”, in An Epistle to a Friend, with Other Poems. […], London: […] R. Noble, for T[homas] Cadell, Junior, and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, page 10, lines 19–20:
text: This letter revived in my memory what I had before forgotten, the threat of the fiend—"I will be with you on your wedding-night!" Such was my sentence, and on that night would the dæmon employ every art to destroy me and tear me from the glimpse of happiness which promised partly to console my sufferings.
ref: 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 100–101:
text: As the eye darts into these dusky chambers of death, it catches glimpses of quaint effigies: some kneeling in nitches, as if in devotion; others stretched upon the tombs, with hands piously pressed together; […]
ref: 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Westminster Abbey”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VII, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 12:
text: Not a glimpse can you get of the merits or defects of the performers: they are hidden in a profusion of barbarous epithets and wilful rhodomontade.
ref: 1822, William Hazlitt, “Essay VIII. On Familiar Style.”, in Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, volume II, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Henry Colburn and Co., →OCLC, page 194:
text: And being, from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose; [he] went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.
ref: 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 38:
text: Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 14:
text: On the other hand, to arrive after dusk, when the multitude of garish little public-houses are lit up, giving glimpses of crowded jostling bars and taprooms, is an introduction to a fine city well calculated to affect even the most nonchalant.
ref: 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 703:
text: An opening sequence, featuring a de-aged [Harrison] Ford playing a younger Indy [i.e., Indiana Jones], is a bold and nostalgic gambit, offering a glimpse of what you've missed.
ref: 2023 June 28, Victoria Luxford, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Review: A Nostalgic Treat”, in City A.M., London: THG plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2023, page 18, column 2:
synonyms: glance#Noun
peek#Noun
gander#Noun
glosses: Chiefly followed by of: a brief and incomplete look.
examples: text: [W]hat may this meane, / That thou, dead corſe, againe in compleate ſteele, / Reuiſſits thus the glimſes of the Moone, / Making night hideous, and vve fooles of nature, / So horridely to ſhake our diſpoſition, / VVith thoughts beyond the reaches of our ſoules?
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature C3, recto:
text: 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.
ref: 1610, G[iles] Fletcher, “Christs Victorie on Earth”, in Christs Victorie, and Triumph in Heauen, and Earth, ouer, and after Death, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] C. Legge, →OCLC, stanza 25, page 33:
text: They that held the Stars of heaven vvere but rayes and flaſhing glimpſes of the Empyreall light, through holes and perforations of the upper heaven, took of the natural ſhadovvs of ſtars, […]
ref: 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter IIII.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 181:
text: Light as the Lightning glimpſ they ran, they flevv, […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [X4], recto, line 642:
text: If I, Celeſtial Sire, in aught / Have ſerv'd thy VVill, or gratify'd thy Thought, / One glimpſe of Glory to my Iſſue give; […]
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Homer’s Ilias”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 214:
text: At length the forest of Falkland received them, and a glimpse of the moon showed the dark and huge tower, an appendage of royalty itself, though granted for a season to the Duke of Albany.
ref: 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 187:
text: [W]e climb'd / The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw / […] / The shimmering glimpses of a stream; […]
ref: 1850, Alfred Tennyson, “Conclusion”, in The Princess: A Medley, 3rd edition, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 173:
text: […] English Crackenthorpius (who has the honour to be an ancestor of Mr. [William] Wordsworth), though buried for two centuries, will revisit the glimpses of the moon.
ref: 1828 December, Thomas De Quincey, “Rhetoric”, in Critical Suggestions on Style and Rhetoric with German Tales and Other Narrative Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XI), London: James Hogg & Sons, published 1859, →OCLC, page 25:
glosses: A brief, sudden flash of light; a glimmer.
examples: text: Every surmise and vaticination of the mind is entitled to a certain respect, and we learn to prefer imperfect theories, and sentences, which contain glimpses of truth, to digested systems which have no one valuable suggestion.
ref: 1836, [Ralph Waldo Emerson], “Prospects”, in Nature, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 86:
text: Let there be thistles, there are grapes; / If old things, there are new; / Ten thousand broken lights and shapes, / Yet glimpses of the true.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 185:
glosses: A faint or imprecise idea; an inkling.
examples: text: […] 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.
ref: 1809–1818 (date written), Lord Byron, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the First.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, The Works of Lord Byron: […], volume VIII, London: John Murray, […], published 1832, →OCLC, footnote 2, page 21:
synonyms: word: bat of an eye
word: bit
word: blink of an eye
word: crack
word: eyeblink
word: flash
word: glimpse
word: half a mo
word: instant
word: jiff
word: jiffy
word: jot
word: minute
word: mo
word: moment
word: New York minute
word: New York second
word: no time
word: sec
word: second
word: span
word: split-second
word: spurt
word: stound
word: tick
word: trice
word: twink
word: twinkle
word: twinkling
word: while
glosses: A brief, unspecified amount of time; a moment.
examples: text: 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.
ref: a. 1548 (date written), [Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey], “Description of the Fickle Affections, Panges, and Sleightes of Loue”, in Songes and Sonettes, London: […] Richard Tottel, published 10 August 1557 (Gregorian calendar), →OCLC, folio 4, recto:
text: [T]here is no man hath a vertue, that he hath not a glimpſe of, nor any mã [man] an attaint, but he carries ſome ſtain of it.
ref: c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], signature A3, verso:
text: [T]here is not any creature that hath ſo neere a glympſe of their [spirits'] nature, as light in the Sunne and Elements; […]
ref: 1642, Tho[mas] Browne, “The First Part”, in Religio Medici. […], 4th edition, London: […] E. Cotes for Andrew Crook […], published 1656, →OCLC, section 33, page 72:
text: VVho is this vve muſt learn, for man he ſeems / In all his lineaments, though in his face / The glimpſes of his Fathers glory ſhine.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 6, lines 91–93:
synonyms: glimmer#Noun
hint#Noun
trace#Noun
glosses: A faint (and often temporary) appearance; a tinge.
Derived terms: word: foreglimpse
word: glemish
word: glimpselike