dint

Etymology

From Middle English dint, dent, dünt, from Old English dynt (“dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe; the mark left by a blow; the sound or noise made by a blow, thud”), from Proto-Germanic *duntiz (“a blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to strike, hit”). Cognate with Swedish dialectal dunt, Icelandic dyntr (“a dint”). Doublet of dent.

noun

1. (obsolete) A blow, stroke, especially dealt in a fight.
   Between them cross-bows stood, and engines wrought / To cast a stone, a quarry, or a dart, // From whence, like thunder's dint, or lightnings new, / Against the bulwarks stones and lances flew. 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XI, xxxi
2. Force, power; especially in by dint of.
   It was by dint of passing strength / That he moved the massy stone at length. 1805, Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, section XVIII
3. The mark left by a blow; an indentation or impression made by violence; a dent.
   and read the naked shield,[…] Of every dint a sword had beaten in it, / And every scratch a lance had made upon it 1860, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Lancelot and Elaine”, in Idylls of the King

verb

1. To dent.
   Your helmet was dinted in as if by a great shot. 1854, W. Harrison Ainsworth, The Star-Chamber, Volume 2
   And, in that moment came one, fierce and wild of aspect, in dinted casque and rusty mail who stood and watched--ah God! 1915, Jeffery Farnol, Beltane The Smith