glimmern.1
/ˈɡlɪmə/, U.S. /ˈɡlɪmər/ 1. A feeble or wavering light; a tremulous play of reflected light, a sheen, shimmer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > light emitted in particular manner > [noun] > gleam, glimmer, or flicker
blenka1400
blushc1400
gleamc1440
glance?a1513
glinta1542
glish1570
glimpse1603
glimmera1616
glimble1658
blink1717
glent1728
shimmer1821
glisk1824
flicker1849
glist1864
styme1888
a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) v. i. 317 My wasting lampes [have yet] some fading glimmer left. View more context for this quotation
1800 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 90 176 The liquid seemed to have lost its luminous quality except a little glimmer floating at the top.
1818 M. W. Shelley Frankenstein I. iv. 97 By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open.
1855 Ld. Tennyson Maud xxi. ix, in Maud & Other Poems 71 In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls, Queen lily and rose in one.
1861 T. A. Trollope La Beata I. viii. 196 This glimmer proceeded from a lamp of silver.
1873 W. Black Princess of Thule v. 71 Both the young men at once recognized the glimmer of the small white feather.
1884 Bazaar, Exchange & Mart 17 Dec. 647/3 The painting was remarkable for the actuality of brilliant moonlight, and the marvellous imitation of its glimmer on the leaves of the laurels.
1888 W. H. H. Rogers Memorials of West 3 The white glimmer in the far distance is Axminster.
2. figurative.
a. Showiness of manner (? obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pride > ostentation > [noun]
boast1297
strut1303
bombancec1325
bobantc1330
bobancec1380
ambitionc1384
oliprancec1390
pretence?a1439
ostentationa1475
pransawtea1500
bravity1546
finesse1549
bravery1573
overlashing1579
brave1596
peacockry1596
garishness1598
maggot ostentation1598
ostent1609
flaunta1625
spectability1637
vantation1637
fastuousness1649
fastuosity1656
finery1656
parade1656
phantastry1656
ostentatiousness1658
éclat1704
pretension1706
braw1724
swell1724
showiness1730
ostensibility1775
fanfaronade1784
display1816
showing off1822
glimmer1827
tigerism1836
peacockery1844
show-off1846
flare1847
peacockism1854
swank1854
tigerishness1869
flashness1888
flamboyance1891
peacockishness1892
flamboyancy1896
swankiness1920
plushness1949
glitziness1982
fantasia-
fantastication-
1827 W. Scott Jrnl. 22 Jan. (1941) 11 No dash, or glimmer, or shine about him, but great simplicity of manners and behaviour.
b. A faint gleam (of knowledge, hope, etc.); a faint perception; a glimpse.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of ideation > faint, imperfect idea > [noun]
glimmeringc1380
glimpse1570
impression1613
sense1655
idea1712
conception1796
feeling1811
glimmer1837
a gleam (also glint, twinkle) in a person's eye1934
the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > a small quantity or amount > a very small amount > specifically of something immaterial
sparkc888
shredc1400
drop1576
scrap1607
particle1620
atom1626
morsel1779
thimbleful1789
glimmer1837
flicker1849
1837 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe I. i. 7 As early as the sixth century, a little glimmer of light was perceptible in the Irish monasteries.
1859 Parl. Deb. 3rd Ser. 155 814 He has not a glimmer of the grammar.
1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (1876) II. vii. 86 Here we get the first glimmer of Austin canons.
1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems lxiv. 186 Nowhere flight, no glimmer of hope.
1885 Ld. Tennyson Despair xix I have had some glimmer, at times, in my gloomiest woe, Of a God behind all.
3. slang.† a. Fire. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > burning > fire or flame > [noun]
bruneOE
fireOE
eldc1200
glimmer1567
Vulcan1595
fire king1796
1567 T. Harman Caueat for Commen Cursetors (new ed.) sig. Eii These Demaunders for glymmar be for the most parte wemen, for glymmar in their language is fyre.
1665 R. Head Eng. Rogue I. sig. C8v Glymmer, fire.
b. plural. The eyes.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > eye > [noun]
eyeeOE
the fleshly eyec1175
balla1400
window1481
glazier1567
light1580
crystal1592
orb1594
glass1597
optic1601
twinkler1605
lampa1616
watchera1616
wink-a-peeps1615
visive organa1652
ogle1673
peeper1691
goggle?1705
visual orb1725
orbit1727
winker1734
peep?1738
daylights?1747
eyewinker1808
keeker1808
glimmer1814
blinker1816
glim1820
goggler1821
skylight1824
ocular1825
mince pie1857
saucer1858
mince1937
1814 Sailor's Return i. vi Get out of my way, you booby, or I'll darken your glimmers for you.
1814 Sailor's Return i. vii Come, my lad, close your glimmers, and I'll apply a plaster.
Derivatives
ˈglimmerless adj. without a glimmer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > [adjective]
blinda1000
darkOE
lightlessOE
murkOE
therka1325
murkfula1400
unsheena1400
tenebrousc1420
tenebrose1490
tenebrate1492
sable?a1513
unlightsome1574
tenebrious1594
blindfold1601
Stygian1602
dayless1657
unenlightened1662
darklinga1718
rayless1727
tenebrific1786
twinkless1830
transdiurnal1848
glimmerless1889
gleamless1891
unlightened1896
1889 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 10/1 The liquid dusk that hung glimmerless above the horizon.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
glimmern.2
/ˈɡlɪmə/, U.S. /ˈɡlɪmər/ Mineralogy.
Mica (see quot. 1859).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > silicates > phyllosilicate > [noun] > mica
glass-stone1601
ice-glass1664
daze1671
glimmer1683
isinglass1750
isinglass-stone1751
marienglas1762
mica1778
sheep's silver1814
1683 J. Pettus tr. L. Ercker i. 7 in Fleta Minor i Silver Oars..free from Flint..Mispickle, Glimmer, Wolferan [etc.].
1683 J. Pettus tr. L. Ercker ii. 201 in Fleta Minor i Glimer.
1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. iii. 118 Mica arenosa..which the Germans call Catsilver or Glimmer.
1779 P. Woulfe in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 69 30 May not the green and yellow glimmers from Johngeorgenstadt be of this kind?
1804 C. B. Brown tr. C. F. de Volney View Soil & Climate U.S.A. 55 The interior boundary of this sand is a ridge or bank of granitic talc,..called, by the Swedish traveller Kalm, glimmer.
1859 D. Page Handbk. Geol. Terms 180 Glimmer, the term applied by Werner to the several varieties of mica; occasionally used to designate talcose and micaceous compounds.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
glimmerv.
/ˈɡlɪmə/, U.S. /ˈɡlɪmər/ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > light emitted in particular manner > [verb (intransitive)] > gleam, glimmer, or flicker
shimmera1100
blenk1303
leamc1330
blysnec1400
glimmerc1400
glimpsec1400
glintc1440
glim1481
lemyrea1500
glimster1565
glance1568
flicker1608
simper1633
gloat1644
gleen1662
shimper1674
blink1786
skimmer1788
flash1791
sheen1812
glinter1851
flimmer1880
c1400 (?c1390) Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) l. 172 His arsounȝ..Þat euer glemered & glent al of grene stones.
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 199/1 Glymeryn, radio.
a1450 (c1410) H. Lovelich Hist. Holy Grail xxxi. l. 158 Cler Schynenge As the sonne vppon the water whanne it is Glemerynge.
1481 W. Caxton tr. Hist. Reynard Fox (1970) 53 He was so ferdful to loke on that his eyen glymmerd as fyre.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) lxxxiiii. sig. Yii He sawe ye bryght sonne glimmering on ye faire chirches & hye steples.
2.
a. In weaker sense: to give a faint or intermittent light; to shine faintly. Also with away, out, and quasi-transitive with cognate object.
ΚΠ
1483 Cath. Angl. 159/1 To Glymer, sublucere.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iii. iii. 5 The West yet glimmers with some streakes of Day. View more context for this quotation
1639 T. B. tr. J.-P. Camus Certain Moral Relations in S. Du Verger tr. J.-P. Camus Admirable Events 207 The smallest starres, which the obscurity of night causeth to glimmer in the skye.
1718 M. Prior Solomon on Vanity ii, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 465 The rising motion of an infant ray Shot glimmering thro' the cloud, and promis'd day.
1794 A. Radcliffe Myst. of Udolpho II. xii. 465 A light glimmered through the grates of the lower chamber.
1797 M. Robinson Walsingham III. 73 The festoons of coloured lamps glimmered their last rays.
1832 H. Martineau Ireland iv. 65 They had..felt themselves secure while the beacon glimmered south-east of them.
1862 J. H. Burton Book-hunter (1863) 404 There are many who will remember the white house glimmering through the trees.
1871 L. Stephen Playground of Europe ii. 82 Enormous spaces of hill and plain..glimmering away to the indistinct horizon.
b. transferred and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > attention > attracting attention > arouse attention [verb (intransitive)]
glimmer1561
strike1733
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. (1634) iv. xix. 719 In the Sacraments, that which is of God, scarcely glimmereth in at holes, among the rout of the inventions of men.
1619 E. M. Bolton tr. Florus Rom. Hist. 959 So soone..as any occasion glimmer'd out, they stuck not to breake in vpon vs.
1759 S. Johnson Idler 21 July 225 We should have..travelled upward to the original of things by the light of History, till in remoter times it had glimmered in fable, and at last been left in darkness.
1809–10 S. T. Coleridge Friend (1865) 1 Antecedent to all history, and long glimmering through it as a holy tradition.
1844 tr. M. T. Asmar Mem. Babylonian Princess II. 265 A name which will be honoured and revered, as long as one spark of virtue glimmers on the face of the earth.
1858 N. Hawthorne Fr. & Ital. Jrnls. I. 101 The voice came glimmering and bubbling up a flight of stone steps.
1860 ‘G. Eliot’ Mill on Floss III. vii. ii. 254 The idea of ever recovering happiness never glimmered in her mind for a moment.
c. to glimmer into: to pass into with a glimmer.
ΚΠ
1858 N. Hawthorne Fr. & Ital. Jrnls. I. 216 The figures sadly glimmered into something like visibility.
d. to go glimmering: to die away, die out, vanish, ‘peter out’. U.S. slang.
ΚΠ
1891 Memphis Appeal-Avalanche 8 May 4/1 The union depot project appears to have gone glimmering down the vale of things that were.
1910 W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 28 My reputation has gone glimmering.
1912 C. Mathewson Pitching in Pinch ix. 194 With the decision, the Pirates' last chance went glimmering.
1945 La Junta (Colorado) Tribune-Democrat 1 June 1/8 Plans for a new building..went glimmering today as School District 11 was turned down on its application for Lenham funds for this purpose.
3. (a) To look or glance with half-closed eyes; to see indistinctly (rare); (b) transitive. causatively (see quot. 1580) (obsolete rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > types of vision > [verb (intransitive)] > see indistinctly
glimpsec1386
glimmer1579
1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 56/1 If we doe not looke with full open eyes, but only glimmer in passing by, we shall se such gret villaneis, that they are inough to put out our eyes.
1580 C. Hollyband Treasurie French Tong Esblouir les yeux, to glimmer the eies, to dazell.
1896 N.Y. Weekly Witness 30 Dec. 13/2 The little fellow had one eye closed entirely, and the other was glimmering.
Compounds
glimmer-gowk n. dialect an owl.
ΚΠ
1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. Glimmer-gowk, an owl. ‘A glimmer-gowk's afore ony cat for mice.’
1880 Ld. Tennyson Village Wife vii. 6 'E sit like a greät glimmer-gowk wi' 'is glasses athurt 'is noäse.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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