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Glimpse vs Glean - What's the difference?

glimpse | glean |

As nouns the difference between glimpse and glean

is that glimpse is a brief look, glance, or peek while glean is a collection made by gleaning.

As verbs the difference between glimpse and glean

is that glimpse is to see or view briefly or incompletely while glean is to collect (grain, grapes, etc.) left behind after the main harvest or gathering.

glimpse

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A brief look, glance, or peek.
  • :
  • *(Samuel Rogers) (1763-1855)
  • *:Here hid by shrub wood, there by glimpses seen.
  • *
  • *: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.
  • A sudden flash.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Light as the lightning glimpse they ran.
  • A faint idea; an inkling.

    • Verb

    (glimps)
  • To see or view briefly or incompletely.
    • I have only begun to glimpse the magnitude of the problem.
  • To appear by glimpses.
    • (Drayton)

    Synonyms

    * perceive, notice, detect, spot, catch sight of

    glean

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) , from (etyl).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To collect (grain, grapes, etc.) left behind after the main harvest or gathering.
  • * , Ruth 2:2,
    • Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.
  • * Shakespeare
    • To glean the broken ears after the man / That the main harvest reaps.
  • To gather what is left in (a field or vineyard).
    • to glean a field
  • To gather information in small amounts, with implied difficulty, bit by bit.
  • * John Locke
    • content to glean what we can from experiments
  • * 8 December 2011 , BBC News, Iran shows film of captured US drone , available in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562 :
    • He said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.
  • To frugally accumulate resources from low-yield contexts.
    • He gleaned a living from newspaper work for a few months, but in the summer went to a fishing village […] where […] he wrote his great historical drama, "Master Olof." (Translators Edith and Warner Oland on author .)
    Synonyms
    * (gather information) learn

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A collection made by gleaning.
  • * Dryden
    • The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs.

    Etymology 2

    Noun

  • (obsolete) cleaning; afterbirth
    • (Holland)
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

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