Word: glance Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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 Pronunciation: /ɡlɑːns/, /ɡlæns/, [ɡɫeəns] 1. To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly. Labels: transitive Example: 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? Example: Vivian glanced a look, which would have been annihilation to any one, not a freeholder of five hundred acres. 2. To look briefly at (something). Labels: transitive Example: 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. To cause (light) to gleam or sparkle. Labels: transitive Example: 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. To cause (something) to move obliquely. Labels: also, figuratively, transitive Example: 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, […] Example: [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. 5. To cause (something) to move obliquely. Labels: also, figuratively, transitive Example: 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. 6. To cause (something) to move obliquely. Labels: also, figuratively, transitive 7. To communicate (something) using the eyes. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: [T]here his Eye took diſtant Aim, / And glanc'd Reſpect to that bright Dame, […] Example: 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! 8. To touch (something) lightly or obliquely; to graze. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: Alone, it was the ſubiect of my Theame: / In company I often glanced it: / Still did I tell him, it was vilde and bad. Example: 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. 9. To make an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourably, on (a topic); also, to make (an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourable). Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: I will this Night, / in ſeuerall Hands, in at his Windowes throw, / As if they came from ſeuerall Citizens, / Writings, all tending to the great opinion / That Rome holds of his Name: wherein obſcurely / Cæſars Ambition ſhall be glanced at. Example: And therefore in order to promote ſo uſeful a Work, I will here take Leave to glance a few Innuendo’s, that may be of great Aſſiſtance to thoſe ſublime Spirits, who ſhall be appointed to labor in a univerſal Comment upon this wonderful Diſcourſe. 10. To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. Labels: also, figuratively, intransitive Example: A has a little gald me I confeſſe: / And as the Ieſt did glaunce awaie from me, […] Example: I am glad yet your arrow hath glanced. 11. To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. Labels: also, figuratively, intransitive 12. To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. Labels: also, figuratively, intransitive Example: [Page 493] [G]eneral impressions of glancing frequency in Acanthochromis juveniles have suggested that the glancing off parents occurs most often in young juveniles and appears to diminish in frequency as juveniles age […] [Page 494] The unusually high variance in lagoon stage-3 juveniles was caused by one relatively small brood (14) that glanced 36 times in one 30-min observation period. 13. Of light, etc.: to gleam, to sparkle. Labels: intransitive Example: She watched the spring sunlight glancing on the water of the pond. Example: [T]hou [God] didſt call, thou didſt cry, thou didſt break my Deafneſs, thou glancedſt, thou didſt ſhine, thou chaſeſt away my Darkneſs. 14. Of a thing: to move in a way that catches light, and flash or glitter. Labels: intransitive Example: In thee freſh brooks, and ſoft ſtreams glance / And all my fountains clear. Example: [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; […] 15. Often followed by at: of the eyes or a person: to look briefly. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror. Example: The Poets eye, in a fine frenzy, rolling, doth glance / From heauen to earth, from earth to heauen. 16. Often followed by at: of a topic: to make an incidental or passing reflection on, often unfavourably; to allude to; to hint at. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: Is’t not enough thou haſt ſuborn’d theſe women, / To accuſe this worthy man? but in foule mouth, / And in the witneſſe of his proper eare, / To call him villaine; and then to glance from him, / To th’ Duke himſelfe, to taxe him with Iniuſtice? Example: He could never procure himself to be chosen fellow; for it was objected against him, that he had written verses, and particularly some, wherein he glanced at a certain reverend doctor famous for dulness; […] 17. Followed by by: to pass near without coming into contact. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: Some have digged deep, yet glanced by the Royal Vein; and a Man may come unto the Pericardium, but not the Heart of Truth. 18. To move quickly; to dart, to shoot. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: 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? Example: [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.