dint
/dɪnt
/noun
1A dent or hollow in a surface: the soft dints at the top of a coconut...
- The hat, I think the style was called fedora, had a dark band and a dint in the top, which my father would sometimes correct with a chopping action of his right hand.
- Remove dints and scratches and chips from cars; detail your car inside and out and respray the car, for $1000.
- I'm not sure my massive century-old wardrobe can handle any more nicks and dints from ‘careful’ removalists.
Synonyms
dent, indentation, depression, dip, dimple, cleft, hollow, crater, pit;
notch, nick, chip, mark, cut, gouge, gash
2 archaic A blow or stroke, typically one made with a weapon in fighting.
2.1 [mass noun] Force of attack; impact: I perceive you feel the dint of pity...
- A goal between the teams and many opportunities fell to Carlow who failed to make any further dints in a very strong and tight Erins Own defence.
- It has been proved in recent years that if the police focus resources on certain areas which are notorious for high levels of criminal activity a big dint can be made in the number of offences committed.
- And we're talking a lot of meat: 20,000 animals a year before you make a dint on the population.
verb [with object]
Mark (a surface) with dents or hollows: (as adjective dinted) the metal was dull and dinted...
- Around the walls dinted filing cabinets were cluttered haphazardly.
- She hit him as hard as she could but she could tell she hadn't even dinted his muscles of steal.
- Its windows were broken and boarded up, the large steel doors dinted and nearly hanging from their hinges, and the walls were covered in a mix of grime, offensive graffiti, and a number of other things they couldn't even identify.
Phrases
by dint of
Origin
Old English dynt 'stroke with a weapon', reinforced in Middle English by the related Old Norse word dyntr; of unknown ultimate origin. Compare with dent.
The phrase by dint of ‘by means of’ has violent origins. A dint was originally a stroke or blow with a weapon, and by dint of meant ‘by force of’, as in by dint of sword, an obsolete way of saying ‘by force of arms’.