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Peek vs Glimpse - What's the difference?

peek | glimpse |

As verbs the difference between peek and glimpse

is that peek is to look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep while glimpse is to see or view briefly or incompletely.

As an acronym PEEK

is polyetheretherketone.

As a noun glimpse is

a brief look, glance, or peek.

peek

English

Alternative forms

* (l), (l) (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) *, probably a fusion of peep and keek.

Verb

(en verb)
  • To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep.
  • To be only slightly, partially visible, as if peering out from a hiding place.
  • * 2012 , Rachel Kramer Bussel, Going Down: Oral Sex Stories (ISBN 1573447978):
  • A pale strip of white skin peeked out from under his waistband.
  • * 2012 , Michelle Monkou, If I Had You (ISBN 1459223284):
  • Her brown skin peeked through the empty gap in her clothing.
  • (computing) To retrieve (a value) from a memory address.
  • * 2006 , Gary Willoughby, PureBasic: A Beginner's Guide to Computer Programming (page 279)
  • We are peeking the value from the first index's memory location.

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (head)
  • Anagrams

    * * *

    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