glint
/ɡlɪnt
/verb [no object]
1Give out or reflect small flashes of light: her glasses glinted in the firelight...
- Lifting up his glass of water, and noting the way the pure crystal glass glinted in the harsh light, he took a small sip from it.
- He would whisper his questions and his glasses would glint in the torch light.
- The coiled copper bracelet on her forearm glinted in the fire light.
Synonyms
shine, gleam, catch the light, glitter, sparkle, twinkle, blink, wink, glimmer, shimmer, glow, flicker, glisten, flash;
reflect light
literary glister
rare coruscate, scintillate, fulgurate, effulge, luminesce, incandesce, phosphoresce
1.1(Of a person’s eyes) shine with a particular emotion: his eyes glinted angrily...
- His eyes glinted with unreadable emotion, his cheeks stained with dried tears.
- When she opened her eyes, Rick loomed over her, his eyes glinting angrily.
- The tallest of the three had his jaws set hard, his green eyes glinting angrily.
noun
1A small flash of light, especially a reflected one: the glint of gold in his teeth...
- The summer sun caught her light brown hair and turned it into a place of shadows, tinted with glints of gold.
- Soft glints of moonlight reflected off broken glass pieces and onto their black coats, and I watched them for a minute, their muscles rippling under their skin.
- In a moment, the ship set sail on its return voyage, fading into the glints of sunlight reflecting of the salty bay with a mission to return next summer.
Synonyms
glitter, gleam, sparkle, twinkle, blink, wink, glimmer, flash
1.1 [in singular] An expression of an emotion in a person’s eyes: she saw the glint of excitement in his eyes...
- I turned to her and saw a bright mischievous glint in her eye.
- She sighed for a while, and I saw a mischievous glint in her eyes.
- He looked back at me and I saw a mischievous glint in his blue eyes.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'move quickly or obliquely'): variant of dialect glent, probably of Scandinavian origin and related to Swedish dialect glänta, glinta 'to slip, slide, gleam'.