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Glance vs Glisten - What's the difference?

glance | glisten |

In lang=en terms the difference between glance and glisten

is that glance is to graze a surface while glisten is to reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash.

As verbs the difference between glance and glisten

is that glance is to look briefly (at something) while glisten is to reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash.

As nouns the difference between glance and glisten

is that glance is a brief or cursory look while glisten is a glittering shine; a scintillation, sparkle or flash.

glance

English

Alternative forms

* glaunce (obsolete)

Verb

(glanc)
  • To look briefly (at something).
    • She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
  • To graze a surface.
  • To sparkle.
    • The spring sunlight was glancing on the water of the pond.
  • * Tennyson
    • From art, from nature, from the schools, / Let random influences glance , / Like light in many a shivered lance, / That breaks about the dappled pools.
  • To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle.
  • * Macaulay
    • And all along the forum and up the sacred seat, / His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.
  • To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Your arrow hath glanced .
  • * Milton
    • On me the curse aslope / Glanced on the ground.
  • (soccer) To hit lightly with the head, make a deft header.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 18 , author= , title=Wolverhampton 5 - 0 Doncaster , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Doncaster paid the price two minutes later when Doyle sent Hunt away down the left and his pinpoint cross was glanced in by Fletcher for his sixth goal of the season. }}
  • To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude; to hint; often with at .
  • * Shakespeare
    • Wherein obscurely / Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • He glanced at a certain reverend doctor.

    Synonyms

    * (To look briefly) glimpse

    Derived terms

    * glance off * glance over * glance away * glanceable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A brief or cursory look.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • Dart not scornful glances from those eyes.
  • * 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
    • Warwick left the undertaker's shop and retraced his steps until he had passed the lawyer's office, toward which he threw an affectionate glance .
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
    • , passage=But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.}}
  • A deflection.
  • (label) A stroke in which the ball is deflected to one side.
  • A sudden flash of light or splendour.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • swift as the lightning glance
  • An incidental or passing thought or allusion.
  • * (William Cowper) (1731-1800)
    • How fleet is a glance of the mind.
  • (label) Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre.
  • (label) Glance coal.
    • Derived terms
    * at a glance * at first glance * coal glance * cobalt glance * copper glance * steal a glance * wood glance

    glisten

    English

    Verb

  • to reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash

    • Noun

    (-)
  • A glittering shine; a scintillation, sparkle or flash.

    • Anagrams

    *