Definitions

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

  • noun A brief beam or flash of light.
  • noun A steady but subdued shining; a glow.
  • noun A brief or dim indication; a trace.
  • intransitive verb To emit a gleam; flash or glow: synonym: flash.
  • intransitive verb To be reflected as a gleam.
  • intransitive verb To be manifested or indicated briefly or faintly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To dart or throw rays of light; glimmer; glitter; shine; dawn; hence, to appear suddenly and clearly, like a beam or flash of light.
  • To glance; look.
  • Synonyms Glisten, Glitter, etc. See glare, intransitive verb
  • Same as glean.
  • noun Brightness; splendor.
  • noun A flash of light; a beam; a ray; a small stream of light; a dim or subdued glow; hence, something conceived as analogous to a flash or beam of light.
  • noun Specifically— A flash of lightning.
  • noun A hot interval between showers.
  • In falconry, to disgorge refuse from the stomach, as a hawk.

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

  • intransitive verb (Falconry) To disgorge filth, as a hawk.
  • noun A shoot of light; a small stream of light; a beam; a ray; a glimpse.
  • noun Brightness; splendor.
  • transitive verb To shoot out (flashes of light, etc.).
  • transitive verb To shoot, or dart, as rays of light.
  • transitive verb To shine; to cast light; to glitter.

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

  • noun a small or indistinct shaft or stream of light.
  • noun a glimpse or hint; an indistinct sign of something.
  • noun brightness or shininess; splendor.
  • verb To shine; to glitter; to glisten.
  • verb To be briefly but strongly apparent.
  • verb obsolete, falconry To disgorge filth, as a hawk.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb appear briefly
  • noun an appearance of reflected light
  • noun a flash of light (especially reflected light)
  • verb be shiny, as if wet
  • verb shine brightly, like a star or a light

Etymologies

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

[Middle English glem, from Old English glǣm; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]

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