Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To be seized with sudden fear; be terrified.
- To gaze with terror; gaze; look back.
- To frighten; alarm.
- noun A sudden fright or shock.
- noun A glimpse; a sudden or chance view.
- noun A moment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Prov. Eng. & Scot. A transient glance; an unexpected view of something that startles one; a sudden fear.
- noun Scot. A moment: as, for a
gliff .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun UK, Scotland, dialect A
transient glance . - noun UK, Scotland, dialect An
unexpected view of something thatstartles one. - noun UK, Scotland, dialect A sudden
fear .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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'There's many a body that micht be the better of a bit "gliff," but it disna always last, and it's a daungerous game to play at.
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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'Now,' I said, after, congratulating him on his recovery, 'if it doesn't excite you too much tell me exactly what occurred in the churchyard last night, for 'tis an absolute mystery to me, besides having given me an awful "gliff," old fellow, for I have been wondering what might have happened if I hadn't by the merest chance discovered you in your premature grave.'
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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'Well,' he said slowly, 'I once got a "gliff" myself in exactly the same place as I made a short cut through the churchyard one autumn evening.
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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"I thought not," said he, "and yet ye have a kind of gliff* of Mr. Alexander."
Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 1872
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'gliff' in the night from the apparition of 'Silkie' -- so he informed me the lady was called locally.
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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“And aha, Mr. Butler,” rejoined Bartoline, upon whom, as may be well supposed, the jest was lost, and all but the sound of the words, “ye said a gliff syne it was quivis, and now I heard ye say cuivis with my ain ears, as plain as ever I heard a word at the fore-bar.”
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“Gone to her room a little evil-disposed, I am informed, and laid down in her bed for a gliff,” said her grandmother; “as soon as she wakes, she shall take some drops.”
Old Mortality 2004
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'Then aiblins,' replied the elder, stooping and knocking the ashes from his pipe against the fender, 'there micht be a bit gliff, an' this bit paper micht come in gey useful by way o 'stirrin' up his conscience the whilk, I'm thinkin ', has been growin' stiff i 'his auld age.
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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'Onnyway, naethin' came o't, 'continued Ringan, imbibing thoughtfully from his glass,' but what I'm thinkin 'the noo is that aiblins anither ghaist-gliff micht do a body I ken o' a guid turn. '
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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It was the swiftest of visions, yet I had seen enough to give me a 'gliff,' _for the eyes were not those of 'Brownie,' but of my uncle_.
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
hernesheir commented on the word gliff
A fright. - old provincial term from the north of Britain. In Cheshire it was used to signify a glimpse, or transient view; as I got a gliff of him.
May 2, 2011
bilby commented on the word gliff
Prevalence of the wine label image appears to be due to an OCR error in reading cliff as gliff.
November 16, 2014
qms commented on the word gliff
She scurries and huddles under the bed
And hides aquiver with fraidy cat dread.
She flees the "What if?"
She glimpsed in a gliff
Or heard from the whispers in her head.
November 16, 2014
TankHughes commented on the word gliff
It's pronounced jliff, not gliff. #dictionarytroll
September 25, 2015
slumry commented on the word gliff
Well, I tried...I think I will just go on not pronouncing it at all.
September 26, 2015