hinting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of hint.

   He was hinting at trouble ahead without ever spelling it out.

   Hinting at the ending, the author scattered clues through every chapter.

   Note

   Behind this -ing form are verbs that run two ways. Used intransitively, it needs at: she kept hinting at trouble. Used transitively, it takes what is suggested directly: hinting that the deal was off. A third, technical verb gives hinting the typeface, and its gerund is the typographer's noun.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of conveying something through a hint or suggestion rather than stating it outright.

   Like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that leads someone to an idea you never named.

   Through subtle hinting, she let her colleagues know she disagreed.

   His hinting about a promotion turned out to be wishful thinking.

   Similarsuggestion, insinuation, innuendo, intimation, allusion

   Note

   It works both as a mass noun and as a count noun. In Sarah Zettel's In Camelot's Shadow (2009), Risa blushes at "the hintings at her betrothal": separate allusions, each one noticed. The topic is introduced with at, just as with the verb form. Hinting about is also heard, but at is the construction to reach for.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of adding hints to a computer font so its glyphs align to a rasterized grid and render cleanly at specific sizes.

   Proper hinting keeps the typeface legible even at eight or nine points.

   The foundry's hinting preserved the serifs on low-resolution displays.

   Note

   Typographers use the word for work done to a digital font, not to a text. The hints are instructions built into the font that nudge glyph outlines onto the pixel grid at particular point sizes. They keep stem widths consistent and letters legible on low-resolution screens. The matching verb is transitive, so you hint a font, and nothing indirect is implied.

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