hint

Pluralhints

Formshints, hinting, hinted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A clue that points toward an answer or solution.

   The teacher dropped a hint that the exam would focus on chapter three.

   A few well-placed hints guided the detective toward the suspect.

   Similartip, indication

   Note

   Behind every sense here is a verb of grasping: Middle English hinten, a variant of henten "to lay hold of, catch", from Old English hentan "to seize, grasp". The word hent is its doublet, and hunt is a relative. A clue in this sense is something the mind can catch hold of. That is why one needs a hint for a crossword, and why tip and indication stand close beside it.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   An indirect suggestion that avoids stating something openly.

   She let slip a hint that the company might soon be sold.

   His raised eyebrow was the only hint that he disagreed.

   Similarimplication, insinuation, allusion, innuendo, nod

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To suggest something indirectly rather than stating it openly.

   The minister hinted at upcoming reforms during the interview.

   Critics hint at deeper problems within the organization.

   Similarallude

   Note

   Here the verb stands without a direct object and usually takes at: she hinted at a recount, the minister hinted at reforms. It can also stand completely alone, as in Robert Barr's "as I hinted" (1913), where the thing suggested is understood from earlier. For the construction with a direct object, see the transitive "hint a fault".

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To bring something to mind through a slight mention or indirect reference.

   The novel hints a tragic ending through small details set early on.

   These clues hint the killer's identity without ever naming him.

   Similarsuggest, imply, intimate, foreshadow, indicate

   Note

   The transitive use puts the thing suggested straight after the verb, with no at. Pope's line "Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike" (1735) is the famous case, and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) feels obliged "shortly to hint a matter." Compared with hinting at something, the stress falls on the slight mention itself: a fault named only in passing.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A small, barely noticeable amount of something.

   A hint of jasmine drifted through the open window.

   His voice carried a hint of sadness.

   Similartouch, trace, bit, dash, dab

   Note

   The quantity sense is built as a hint of plus a noun: a hint of irony, of lemon, of condescension. It serves for flavors and tones of voice alike, and it pairs easily with words of smallness. Ben Travers writes of "the slightest hint of condescension" (1921). Tennyson sets it beside its synonym in In Memoriam (1850): "no touch of change, / No hint of death." Trace is its other close partner.

6. 6
   interjectionreduplication

   Used to signal that something just said should be taken as a hint and acted on.

   I've always wanted to visit Paris someday. Hint, hint.

   Someone left the very last cookie sitting on the plate. Hint.

   Note

   An aside tacked onto a remark to make sure it lands, usually doubled as hint, hint and often set in parentheses or as its own sentence. The joke is that a hint, which is supposed to be indirect, is announced out loud. A single hint can do the same work, but the doubled form makes the nudge broader.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   An instruction to a database engine about how a query should be executed, such as whether to use an index.

   She added a hint to force the engine to use the primary index.

   The query ran much faster once the developers included a few hints.

   Note

   In database work this is advice written into the query for the engine: use this index, or skip it. A hint changes how the engine carries out a query, not what the query asks for, so the same results come back either way. Developers add hints when the engine's own plan is too slow, and a well-chosen one can make a query run much faster.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   Information in a computer font that adjusts how glyph outlines are distorted so they render clearly at specific sizes.

   A well-crafted hint keeps the letterforms crisp even at eight pixels tall.

   Older fonts often shipped with detailed hints for screen rendering.

   Note

   Digital type needs help at small sizes, and this is the help. An outline that looks fine when large can render blotchy on a coarse pixel grid. Hints tell the renderer how to bend each glyph's outline so stems and curves stay legible. They are worked out size by size and letter by letter, as when the 10-point g still needs attention. Adding them is the verb for hinting a font.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To develop and add hints to a font so its glyphs render well at various sizes.

   Designers hint each typeface carefully before release.

   He hinted the font so its characters stayed sharp on screen.

   Note

   The verb behind the font-data noun: you hint a font, and the work itself is called hinting, as when a typographer "worked all day on hinting her new font." Its past form, hinted, is spelled like the everyday verb. So a hinted font is one that has been given this rendering data, not one that was merely implied.

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