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Observation vs Glance - What's the difference?

observation | glance |

As nouns the difference between observation and glance

is that observation is the act of observing, and the fact of being observed while glance is a brief or cursory look.

As a verb glance is

to look briefly (at something).

observation

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of observing, and the fact of being observed.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jeremy Bernstein)
  • , volume=100, issue=2, page=146, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= A Palette of Particles , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}
  • The act of noting and recording some event; or the record of such noting.
  • A remark or comment.
  • * Shakespeare
  • That's a foolish observation .
  • * Alexander Pope
  • To observations which ourselves we make / We grow more partial for the observer's sake.
  • A judgement based on observing.
  • Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • We are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances.

    Derived terms

    * observation car

    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