glint

Etymology

15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint; from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”); probably alteration of Old Norse [Term?]; from Middle High German glinzen; from Proto-Germanic *glintaną, *glintjaną; from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognate with Swedish glänta, glinta (“to slip, slide, gleam, shine”), Swedish glimt. Reintroduced into literary English by Robert Burns.

noun

1. A short flash of light.
   I saw the glint of metal as he raised the gun.
   To be plunged straight into the old nut and bolt shop, as was the writer's experience, during a spell of cloudless June Weather was a real hardship, and the mind kept flitting back to the glint of blue water under willow trees and the click of ball on bat on a quiet spacious greensward. 1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 283

adj

1. (archaic, Shropshire, of a blade) Not sharp; dull.
   The knife is glint.

verb

1. (intransitive) To flash or gleam briefly.
   A wedding ring glinted on her finger.
   Thor glared at him … what little light there was in the place mustered its forces briefly to glint menacingly off the horns of his helmet. 1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 110
2. (intransitive) To glance; to peep forth, as a flower from the bud; to glitter.
   The rising sun owre Galston muirs, / Wi' glorious light was glintin' 1785, Robert Burns, The Holy Fair
3. (transitive) To cause to flash or gleam; to reflect.
   The scientists theorized that a meteoroid, ranging in size from a speck of dust to a marble, might have struck the satellite and chipped off a bit of debris that glinted a ray of sun back on the Vela's second sensor […] 1980, Inquiry Magazine
4. (archaic, Shropshire, transitive) To dry; to wither.
   The sun glints grass and corn.