glance

Pluralglances

Formsglances, glancing, glanced

1. 1
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A brief or cursory look directed at something or someone.

   He cast a glance over the figures but read none of them closely.

   Her glance toward the clock made her boredom obvious.

   Similarlook, glimpse, peek, peep

   Note

   The look treated as an act with force. Kate is told in The Taming of the Shrew not to “dart … scornful glances” to wound her lord, and Cressida was won “with the first glance.” Glances are darted and cast, and they often carry feeling, as with Herbert's “supercilious glances” or the “powerful glance” of beauty in Milton's Paradise Lost.

2. 2
   verbfigurativelyintransitive

   To look briefly, often turning the eyes toward a person or thing.

   He glanced over his shoulder to see who was behind him.

   Nervous travelers glance at the departure board every few minutes.

   Similarlook, peek, peep

   Note

   The everyday look-briefly verb needs a preposition to aim it. At is the usual choice, but direction words work too. Shakespeare's poet's eye “doth glance from heaven to earth,” and in Washington Irving's The Sketch Book a face “glanced out at the window, and vanished.” The subject can be the eyes or the whole person, and the brevity, the quick vanishing, is part of the meaning.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To direct a brief look toward a specific thing.

   He glanced at the headline and folded the paper away.

   Shoppers glance at the price tags before deciding.

   Similarlook, peek, peep

   Note

   What is looked at becomes the direct object, with no preposition needed. In Scott's Tales of My Landlord, Claverhouse is handed a letter and “glanced it over.” The object sits between verb and particle, as it would with read it over. Compare the intransitive glance at, where a preposition carries the target.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To turn one's eyes or gaze toward something, often only briefly.

   He glanced his eyes over the waiting passengers, searching for his daughter.

   Editors glance their eyes down each column before approving the layout.

   Similarcast, run, turn, dart

   Note

   Here the eye itself is the object: one glances one's eye, or a look. Shakespeare writes “glance thine eye aside”, Disraeli “glanced a look”, and Hawthorne in 1837 has a man “glancing his severe eye round the group.” Behind it is Late Middle English glenchen, used of a person turning quickly aside, blended with Old French glacier, “to slide.” Drop the object and add at, and you have the plain look-briefly verb.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   Of light: to gleam or sparkle.

   The morning sun glanced on the rippling surface of the pond.

   Crystals glance whenever the chandelier is switched on.

   Similargleam, glint, sparkle, glitter, flash

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   Of an object: to move so that it catches the light and flashes or glitters.

   Her bracelet glanced with every turn of her wrist.

   Schools of fish glance as they dart through the sunlit shallows.

   Similarflash, glitter, glint, sparkle, gleam

7. 7
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A flash or glitter produced when something moves quickly and catches the light, or the movement that produces it.

   The glance of moonlight off the waves shimmered through the night.

   Each turn of the wheel threw a glance of light onto the ceiling.

   Similarflash, glint, gleam, sparkle, glitter

   Note

   Light caught in motion, whether from fish scales, lightning or the sun. Lightning is a favored partner: Milton writes “the lightning glance” in Samson Agonistes, and Scott “the lightning's quivering glance” in The Lady of the Lake. The noun can name the movement or the flash it throws, so the sun's “perpendicular glances” in Thomas Herbert's travels are simply its rays.

8. 8
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To communicate something to someone using one's eyes.

   He glanced his approval to her before anyone else noticed.

   Teammates glance silent signals to each other during a tense rally.

   Similarsignal, flash, convey

   Note

   The eyes act as messengers. What is glanced is the message itself, and to marks who receives it. Matthew Prior's eye “glanc'd Respect to that bright Dame,” and Browning in Luria wants an eye “to glance straight inspiration to my brain.” The object is usually an abstract noun such as respect, inspiration or approval, which gives the construction the compression of verse.

9. 9
   verbfigurativelyintransitive

   To strike a surface and fly off at an angle, or dart suddenly to one side.

   The bullet glanced off the armored plate and buried itself in the wall.

   Hailstones glance off the steep roof and scatter across the yard.

   Similarricochet, bounce, rebound, deflect, skim

   Note

   A blow or missile that fails to land squarely. Shakespeare writes “your arrow hath glanced,” and in The Taming of the Shrew a jest “did glance away from me.” The word was figurative early on, used of jests and curses as readily as arrows. Off and away mark the rebound, while Milton's curse that “aslope glanc'd on the ground” uses on for where the deflected thing lands.

10. 10
    verbfigurativelytransitive

    To cause something to move off at an angle.

    She glanced the flat stone across the pond in a long series of skips.

    Defenders glance the clearance off a teammate to keep possession.

    Similardeflect, skim, skip, bounce

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