Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To direct the eyes at or toward something briefly.
  • intransitive verb To read quickly or in cursory fashion.
  • intransitive verb To strike a surface at such an angle as to be deflected.
  • intransitive verb To shine over or through something at an angle.
  • intransitive verb To be reflected, especially in flashes.
  • intransitive verb To make a passing reference; touch briefly.
  • intransitive verb To strike (a surface) at an angle; graze: synonym: brush.
  • intransitive verb To cause to strike a surface at an angle.
  • noun A brief or cursory look.
  • noun A quick flash of light; a gleam.
  • noun An oblique movement following impact; a deflection.
  • idiom (at first glance) On initial consideration.
  • noun Any of various minerals that have a brilliant luster.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In railroading, an incline or shoot made of timber, erected on a mountainside and designed to cause snow which slides down the mountain to glance or turn aside from the track.
  • noun In cricket, a stroke by which, instead of being hit, the ball is allowed to strike the bat and to be deflected from it, usually to the leg side; a glide.
  • In metal-working, to polish very highly; burnish; planish.
  • In cricket, to allow (the ball) to meet the bat and to be deflected from it, usually to the leg side.
  • To shoot or dart a ray or rays of light or splendor; emit flashes or coruscations of light; flash.
  • To appear and disappear rapidly, like a gleam of light; be visible for an instant.
  • To look with a sudden rapid directing of the vision; snatch a momentary or hasty view.
  • To make an incidental or passing reflection or allusion; hint; advert briefly.
  • To be deflected and move off in an oblique direction; move obliquely.
  • To cause to shoot or dart, as a ray of light; reflect, as a gleam.
  • To direct rapidly and for a moment, as the eye or the attention.
  • To suggest; hint.
  • noun A sudden shoot of light or splendor; a transient gleam.
  • noun A sudden look; a rapid or momentary view or directing of the eye; a sudden and brief turning of the attention toward something.
  • noun A brief incidental notice; a passing reference: as, a rapid glance at the remote cause of an event.
  • noun A sudden change of direction of the motion of a projectile or other moving body, due to contact with a deflecting surface; deflected motion.
  • noun In mining and mineralogy, the English equivalent of the German glanz, a term used by German miners to designate various ores possessing that peculiar luster and color which indicate that they are metalliferous combinations.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To shoot or emit a flash of light; to shine; to flash.
  • intransitive verb To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. ”Your arrow hath glanced”.
  • intransitive verb To look with a sudden, rapid cast of the eye; to snatch a momentary or hasty view.
  • intransitive verb To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude; to hint; -- often with at.
  • intransitive verb To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle.
  • noun A sudden flash of light or splendor.
  • noun A quick cast of the eyes; a quick or a casual look; a swift survey; a glimpse.
  • noun An incidental or passing thought or allusion.
  • noun (Min.) A name given to some sulphides, mostly dark-colored, which have a brilliant metallic luster, as the sulphide of copper, called copper glance.
  • noun anthracite; a mineral composed chiefly of carbon.
  • noun cobaltite, or gray cobalt.
  • noun chalcocite.
  • noun a hard wood grown in Cuba, and used for gauging instruments, carpenters' rules, etc.
  • transitive verb To shoot or dart suddenly or obliquely; to cast for a moment.
  • transitive verb obsolete To hint at; to touch lightly or briefly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To look briefly (at something).
  • verb intransitive To graze a surface.
  • verb To sparkle

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English glauncen, alteration (influenced by glenten, to shine) of glacen, from Old French glacer, to slide; see glacis.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Glanz, from Middle High German glanz, from Old High German, bright; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Afrobabe at a glance is a casual smart person, the type you meet on braids and jeans and teeshirt or on corporate attire.

    Archive 2009-01-01 2009

  • Afrobabe at a glance is a casual smart person, the type you meet on braids and jeans and teeshirt or on corporate attire.

    Interview Thursday. Insight into Afrobabe's thinking 2009

  • If you walk into a comic shop then all you will probably see at a glance is the men-in-tights-power-fantasies.

    Kicking The Dog SVGL 2009

  • The full text of OECD at a glance is available here (no charge) available as a web book.

    Statistics: OECD Health at a Glance « ResourceShelf 2007

  • I have a good feeling that Dr. Carter will quickly bring calm to an overheated situation; restore an atmosphere of cooperation and common endeavor on the part of the District's administration, teachers and staff; and, by steadying the administration of the District, allow the Board of Ed the opportunity to focus its attention on the upcoming search for a new superintendent with the confidence that things will not fall apart if their glance is averted.

    Schools: Carter moves inspire confidence Dan 2007

  • I have a good feeling that Dr. Carter will quickly bring calm to an overheated situation; restore an atmosphere of cooperation and common endeavor on the part of the District's administration, teachers and staff; and, by steadying the administration of the District, allow the Board of Ed the opportunity to focus its attention on the upcoming search for a new superintendent with the confidence that things will not fall apart if their glance is averted.

    Archive 2007-06-01 Dan 2007

  • It was something sudden, and it makes one shiver to think of a strong man with all the strength withered out of him by one glance from the soft eyes of a weak, blond, female creature like Flush of Gold.

    Flush of Gold 2010

  • Under the old eyes of a principal whose narrow glance is ample to subdue but not appall, the children spill around the skinned and limbless maple as if outside the temple of a declining god of simple rituals easily met.

    Under the Maypole 2009

  • Under the old eyes of a principal whose narrow glance is ample to subdue but not appall, the children spill around the skinned and limbless maple as if outside the temple of a declining god of simple rituals easily met.

    Under the Maypole 2009

  • For now, he could focus on only one thought: he would never again glance at his watch without being reminded of the man who gave it to him.

    Lessons from a Long Night Foster Trecost 2010

Comments

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  • deep observation at something

    June 26, 2008

  • Spojrzenie, rzut oka, zerkać

    January 18, 2012