glance

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.

   Deare heart forbeare to glance thine eye aſide, / What needſt thou wound with cunning when thy might / Is more then my ore-preſt defence can bide?

2. 2
   verb

   To look briefly at (something).

   A horseman rode up as he spoke, and gave a letter. Claverhouse glanced it over, laughed scornfully, bade him tell his master to send his prisoners to Edinburgh, for there was no answer; […]

3. 3
   verb

   To cause (light) to gleam or sparkle.

   The bink, with its usual arrangement of pewter and earthenware, which was most strictly and critically clean, glanced back the flame of the lamp merrily from one side of the apartment.

4. 4
   verb

   To cause (something) to move obliquely.

   One morning as I lay in my bed, a ſtrong motion was ſuddenly glanced into my thoughts of going to London; I aroſe and betook me to the way, […]

5. 5
   verb

   To communicate (something) using the eyes.

   [T]here his Eye took diſtant Aim, / And glanc'd Reſpect to that bright Dame, […]

6. 6
   verb

   To touch (something) lightly or obliquely; to graze.

   Alone, it was the ſubiect of my Theame: / In company I often glanced it: / Still did I tell him, it was vilde and bad.

7. 7
   verb

   To make an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourably, on (a topic); also, to make (an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourable).

   I will this Night, / in ſeuerall Hands, in at his Windowes throw, / As if they came from ſeuerall Citizens, / Writings, all tending to the great opinion / That Rome holds of his Name: wherein obſcurely / Cæſars Ambition ſhall be glanced at.

8. 8
   verb

   To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.

   A has a little gald me I confeſſe: / And as the Ieſt did glaunce awaie from me, […]

Etymology

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenchen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; of a person: to turn quickly aside, dodge”) [and other forms], a blend of: * Old French glacier, glachier, glaichier (“to slide; to slip”) (whence also Middle English glacen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; to glide”)), from glace (“frozen water, ice”) (from Vulgar Latin *glacia, from Latin glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin, + -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); and * Old French guenchir, ganchir (“to avoid; to change direction; to elude, evade”) [and other form…