View source for glimpse

==English==
{{was wotd|2024|October|9}}

===Etymology===
{{root|en|ine-pro|*ǵʰley-}}
The {{glossary|verb}} is derived from earlier {{m|en|glimse}} {{qualifier|obsolete}}, from {{inh|en|enm|glimsen|t=to dazzle; to glisten; to glance with the eyes}},<ref>{{R:MED Online|entry=glimsen|pos=v|id=MED18800}}</ref> possibly from {{inh|en|ang|*glimsian}}, from {{inh|en|gmw-pro|*glimmisōjan}}, from {{inh|en|gem-pro|*glimō}}, from {{inh|en|ine-pro|*ǵʰley-|t=to shine}}.<ref>Compare {{R:OED Online|pos=v|id=1454001798|date=July 2023|nodot=1}}; {{R:Lexico|pos=v}}</ref> {{doublet|en|glimmer}}.<!--[[:Category:English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰley-]]-->

The {{glossary|noun}} is derived from the verb.<ref>{{R:OED Online|pos=n|id=9666868600|date=June 2024|nodot=1}}; {{R:Lexico|pos=n}}</ref>

{{rel-top|cognates}}
* {{cog|dum|glinsen}} (modern {{cog|nl|glinsteren|t=to glint, glitter, shimmer, sparkle; to glance}}, {{m|nl|glimmen|t=to gleam, shine}})
* {{cog|gml|glinsen}}, {{m|gml|glintzen}}, {{m|gml|glinzen|t=to shimmer, shine}}
* {{cog|gmh|glimsen|t=to glow, smoulder}}, {{m|gmh|glinsen|t=to glimmer, shine}}
{{rel-bottom}}

===Pronunciation===
* {{IPA|en|/ɡlɪm(p)s/|a=RP,GA}}
* {{audio|en|En-us-glimpse.ogg|a=GA}}
* {{rhymes|en|ɪmps|s=1}}

===Verb===
{{en-verb}}

# {{lb|en|transitive}}
## To [[see#Verb|see]] or [[view#Verb|view]] (someone, or something [[tangible#Adjective|tangible]]) [[briefly]] and [[incompletely]].
##* {{RQ:Stuart-Wortley Sonnets|poem=Sonnet|page=99|passage=Morning!—the Vestal Mother of the Sun / Seem'st thou to be, since from thy bosom born, / (Thou that first '''glimpsest'''—like a white-stoled nun!—) / He springeth forth—Oh! thou triumphal Morn!— / His race of glory and of joy to run; {{...}}}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|year=1931|month=August|author=[[w:H. P. Lovecraft|H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft]]|title={{w|The Whisperer in Darkness}}. Chapter 8.|editor=w:Farnsworth Wright|journal=[[w:Weird Tales|Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual]]|location=Indianapolis, Ind.|publisher=Popular Fiction Pub. Co.|volume=XVIII|issue=1|page=67|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v18n01_1931-08.Popular_Fiction_ATLPM-Sas/page/n68/mode/1up|column=2|oclc=55045234|passage=Those wild hills are surely the outpost of a frightful cosmic race—as I doubt all the less since reading that a new ninth planet has been '''glimpsed''' beyond Neptune, just as those influences had said it would be '''glimpsed'''.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|year=2008|author=David Pierce|chapter=Saying Goodbye in ‘Eveline’: Emigration&nbsp;· The Language of ‘Eveline’|title=Reading Joyce|location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire&#59; New York, N.Y.|publisher=w:Routledge|year_published=2013|page=103|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/readingjoyce0000pier/page/103/mode/1up|isbn=978-1-4058-4061-3|passage=The illumined portholes that Eveline {{quote-gloss|in ''[[w:Eveline (short story)|Eveline]]'' (1904) by {{w|James Joyce}}}} '''glimpses''' mean that the night is drawing in, that the ship will be sailing into the dark. 'Illumined' also carries its own gothic charge, and what she '''glimpses''' is not therefore a passenger ship but a ship of death, more foreboding than inviting.}}
## {{lb|en|figurative}} To [[perceive]] (something [[intangible#Adjective|intangible]]) briefly and incompletely.
##: {{ux|en|I have only begun to '''glimpse''' the magnitude of the problem.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|year=1861|author=Andrew M‘Ewen|chapter=Avalande, a Romaunt|title=Avalande. Fyttes and Fancyings|location=London|publisher=Charles H. Clarke,{{nb...|13, Paternoster Row.}}|page=16|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=H-oUsANmmcUC&pg=PA16|oclc=3907780|passage=What memories? / The pure love thoughts and who may know / Thou '''glimpsest''' from the long ago?}}
##* {{RQ:Lowell My Study Windows|page=5|passage=I seem to '''glimpse''' something of this familiar weakness in Mr. [[w:Gilbert White|{{quote-gloss|Gilbert}} White]].}}
##* {{RQ:Coates Unconquered Air|poem=Cendrillon|stanza=2|page=27|passage=A hope that, '''glimpsed''', must fade; / A form, illusion made, / That, vanishing, shall come no more again!}}
# {{lb|en|intransitive}}
## ''Chiefly followed by'' '''[[at#Preposition|at]]''' or '''[[upon]]''': to [[look at]] briefly and incompletely; to [[glance#Verb|glance]].
##* {{RQ:Hawthorne English Notebooks|volume=I|chapter=August 12th. [1855.]|date=12 August 1855|page=249|passage=The door always opens directly into the kitchen, without any vestibule; and, '''glimpsing''' in, you see that a cottager's life must be the very plainest and homeliest that ever was lived by men and women.}}
## To [[shine#Verb|shine]] with a [[faint#Adjective|faint]], [[unsteady]] [[light#Noun|light]]; to [[glimmer#Verb|glimmer]], to [[shimmer#Verb|shimmer]].
##: {{synonyms|en|glitter|Thesaurus:glisten}}
##* {{RQ:Surrey et al Songes|poem=Forsaken Lover|folio=11|verso=1|passage=O Lothſome place where I / Haue ſene and herd my dere / When in my hart her eye / Hath made her thought appere / By '''glimſing''' with ſuch grace / As fortune it ne would, / That laſten any ſpace, / Betwene vs lenger ſhould.}}
##* {{RQ:Gascoigne Steele Glas|sig=C.j.|verso=1|page=19|passage=[O]ur curious yeares can finde / The chriſtal glas, vvhich '''glimſeth''' braue & bright, / And ſhevves the thing, much better than it is, / Beguylde vvith foyles, of ſundry ſubtil ſights, / So that they ſeeme, and couet not to be.}}
## {{lb|en|archaic|or|poetic}} To [[appear]] or [[start#Verb|start]] to appear, especially [[faintly]] or [[unclearly]]; to [[dawn#Verb|dawn]].
##* {{RQ:Drayton Poems|chapter=Barrons Warres|stanza=45|page=113|passage=Straitvvaies on heapes the thronging cloudes ariſe, / As though the heauen vvere angry vvith the night, / Deformed ſhadovves, '''glimpſing''' in his ſight / As darkenes, for it vvould more darkened be, / Through thoſe poore crannies [[forced|forcde]] it ſelfe to ſee.}}
## {{lb|en|rare}} ''Sometimes followed by'' '''[[out#Preposition|out]]''': to [[provide]] a brief and incomplete look.

====Conjugation====
{{en-conj|old=1|stem=glimps}}

====Alternative forms====
* {{alter|en|glinse}} {{qualifier|16th–17th c.|obsolete}}
* {{alter|en|glympse|glymse}} {{qualifier|16th c.|obsolete}}

====Derived terms====
{{col3|en
|foreglimpse
|{{l|en|glimpsable}}, {{l|en|glimpseable}}
|{{l|en|glimpsed|pos=adjective}}
|glimpser
|{{l|en|glimpsing|pos=noun}}
|unglimpsed
}}

====Translations====
{{trans-top|to see or view (someone, or something tangible) briefly and incompletely; to perceive (something intangible) briefly and incompletely}}
* Aromanian: {{t|rup|ndzãrescu}}
* Bulgarian: {{t+|bg|съзирам}}, {{t+|bg|зървам}}
* Chinese:
*: Mandarin: {{t-needed|cmn}}
* Czech: {{t+|cs|zahlédnout}}
* Dutch: {{t|nl|een glimp opvangen}}
* Esperanto: {{t|eo|ekvidi}}
* Finnish: {{t+|fi|silmäillä}}, {{t+|fi|vilkaista}}
* French: {{t+|fr|entrevoir}}
* Galician: {{t+|gl|albiscar}}
* German: {{t+|de|entdecken}}, {{t+|de|erhaschen}}
* Greek: {{t|el|βλέπω φευγαλέα}}
* Italian: {{t+|it|intravedere}}
* Maori: {{t|mi|kite wheriko}}, {{t|mi|wheriko}}
* Occitan: {{t|oc|entrevéser}}
* Portuguese: {{t+|pt|vislumbrar}}
* Romanian: {{t+|ro|întrezări}}, {{t+|ro|zări}}
* Russian: {{t|ru|[[бе́гло]] [[взгляну́ть]]|pf}} {{qualifier|to view}}, {{t+|ru|гля́нуть|pf}} {{qualifier|to glance}}, {{t|ru|[[уви́деть]] [[ме́льком]]|pf}} {{qualifier|to see}}
* Spanish: {{t+|es|atisbar}}, {{t+|es|entrever}}, {{t+|es|ojear}}, {{t+|es|vislumbrar}}
* Swedish: {{t+|sv|glimta|c}}, {{t+|sv|skymta|c}}
* Thai: {{t|th|เหลือบ}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-see|to look at briefly and incompletely|glance}}
{{trans-see|to shine with a faint, unsteady light|glimmer|shimmer}}

{{trans-top-also|to appear or start to appear, especially faintly or unclearly|dawn}}
* Finnish: {{t+|fi|siintää}}
* Galician: {{t-needed|gl}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-top|to provide a brief and incomplete look}}
* Finnish: {{t|fi|vilauttaa}}
* Galician: {{t-needed|gl}}
{{trans-bottom}}

===Noun===
{{en-noun}}

# {{senseid|en|brief look}} ''Chiefly followed by'' '''[[of#Preposition|of]]''': a [[brief#Adjective|brief]] and [[incomplete#Adjective|incomplete]] [[look#Noun|look]].
#: {{syn|en|glance#Noun|peek#Noun|gander#Noun}}
#: {{hypo|en|q=of written things|skim#Noun|;|scan#Noun|perusal<qq:ambiguous>}}
#: {{ux|en|I only got a '''glimpse''' of the car, so I can tell you the colour but not the registration number.}}
#* {{RQ:Lyly Euphues|part=2|chapter=Neither Thine, nor Hir Owne, Camilla|folio=72|verso=1|passage=[T]he ''Baſilike'', whoſe eyes procure delight to the looker at the firſt '''glymſe''', and death at the ſecond glaunce.}}
#* {{RQ:Spenser Fowre Hymnes|page=43|passage=But had thoſe vvits the vvonders of their dayes, / Or that ſvveete ''Teian'' Poet {{quote-gloss|{{w|Anacreon}}}} vvhich did ſpend / His plenteous vaine in ſetting forth her {{quote-gloss|[[w:Venus (mythology)|Venus]]'s}} prayſe, / Seene but a '''glims''' of this, vvhich I pretend, / Hovv vvondrouſly vvould he her face commend, {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Bunyan Holy War|chapter=No Incredulity Found in Mansoul|page=208|passage=All that could be gathered vvas, that he had lurked a vvhile about the out-ſide of the Tovvn, and that here and there one or other had a '''glimpſe''' of him as he did make his eſcape out of ''Manſoul'', {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Radcliffe Italian|volume=I|chapter=XI|pages=303–304|pageref=303|passage=[T]o the ſouth a ſmall opening led the eye to a '''glimpſe''' of the landſcape belovv, vvhich, ſeen beyond the dark javvs of the cliff, appeared free, and light, and gaily coloured, melting avvay into the blue and diſtant mountains.}}
#* {{RQ:Rogers Friend|lines=19–20|page=10|passage=The moſſy pales that ſkirt the orchard-green, / Here hid by ſhrub-vvood, there by '''glimpſes''' ſeen; {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Mary Shelley Frankenstein|volume=III|pages=100–101|pageref=101|passage=This letter revived in my memory what I had before forgotten, the threat of the fiend—"''I will be with you on your wedding-night!''" Such was my sentence, and on that night would the dæmon employ every art to destroy me and tear me from the '''glimpse''' of happiness which promised partly to console my sufferings.}}
#* {{RQ:Irving Sketch Book|title=Westminster Abbey|page=12|passage=As the eye darts into these dusky chambers of death, it catches '''glimpses''' of quaint effigies: some kneeling in nitches, as if in devotion; others stretched upon the tombs, with hands piously pressed together; {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Hazlitt Table-Talk|volume=II|essay=VIII|essayname=On Familiar Style|page=194|passage=Not a '''glimpse''' can you get of the merits or defects of the performers: they are hidden in a profusion of barbarous epithets and wilful rhodomontade.}}
#* {{RQ:Dickens Christmas Carol|page=38|passage=And being, from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his '''glimpse''' of the Invisible World, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose; {{quote-gloss|he}} went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.}}
#* {{RQ:Chambers Younger Set|chapter=His Own People|page=14|passage=Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a '''glimpse''' of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.}}
#* {{quote-journal|en|year=1951|month=October|author=R. S. McNaught|title=Lines of Approach|journal=w:The Railway Magazine|location=London|publisher=Tothill Press|page=703|issn=0033-8923|oclc=1256058197|passage=On the other hand, to arrive after dusk, when the multitude of garish little public-houses are lit up, giving '''glimpses''' of crowded jostling bars and taprooms, is an introduction to a fine city well calculated to affect even the most nonchalant.}}
#* {{quote-journal|en|date=28 June 2023|author=Victoria Luxford|title={{w|Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny}} Review: A Nostalgic Treat|journal=w:City A.M.|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203035926/https://www.cityam.com/indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-review-a-nostalgic-treat/|location=London|publisher=w:THG plc|page=18|column=2|issn=2516-5445|oclc=1064664820|passage=An opening sequence, featuring a de-aged [[w:Harrison Ford|{{quote-gloss|Harrison}} Ford]] playing a younger Indy {{quote-gloss|''i.e.'', [[w:Indiana Jones (character)|Indiana Jones]]}}, is a bold and nostalgic gambit, offering a '''glimpse''' of what you've missed.}}
# {{lb|en|archaic}} A brief, [[sudden#Adjective|sudden]] [[flash#Noun|flash]] of [[light#Noun|light]]; a [[glimmer#Noun|glimmer]].
#* {{RQ:Shakespeare Hamlet Q1-2|act=I|scene=iv|sig=C3|page=18|passage=[W]hat may this meane, / That thou, dead corſe, againe in compleate ſteele, / Reuiſſits thus the '''glimſes''' of the Moone, / Making night hideous, and vve fooles of nature, / So horridely to ſhake our diſpoſition, / VVith thoughts beyond the reaches of our ſoules?}}
#* {{RQ:G. Fletcher Christs Victorie|stanza=25|page=33|passage=Sunk in his {{quote-gloss|Despair's}} skull, his ſtaring eyes did glovve, / That made him deadly looke, their '''glimpſe''' did ſhovve / Like Cockatrices eyes, that ſparks of poyſon throvve.}}
#* {{RQ:Browne Hydriotaphia|page=181|passage=They that held the Stars of heaven vvere but rayes and flaſhing '''glimpſes''' of the Empyreall light, through holes and perforations of the upper heaven, took of the natural ſhadovvs of ſtars, {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Milton Paradise Lost|line=642|sig=&#91;X4&#93;|page=168|passage=Light as the Lightning '''glimpſ''' they ran, they flevv, {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Dryden Fables|chapter=Homer's Ilias|page=214|passage=If I, Celeſtial Sire, in aught / Have ſerv'd thy VVill, or gratify'd thy Thought, / One '''glimpſe''' of Glory to my Iſſue give; {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Scott Canongate 2|volume=III|chapter=VII|page=187|passage=At length the forest of Falkland received them, and a '''glimpse''' of the moon showed the dark and huge tower, an appendage of royalty itself, though granted for a season to the Duke of Albany.}}
#* {{RQ:Tennyson Princess|edition=3rd|page=173|passage=[W]e climb'd / The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw / {{...}} / The shimmering '''glimpses''' of a stream; {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:De Quincey Works|volume=XI|page=25|passage={{...}} English Crackenthorpius (who has the honour to be an ancestor of Mr. [[w:William Wordsworth|{{quote-gloss|William}} Wordsworth]]), though buried for two centuries, will revisit the '''glimpses''' of the moon.|footer=A reference to William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''—see the ''c.'' 1599–1602 quotation above.}}
# {{lb|en|figurative}}
## A [[faint#Adjective|faint]] or [[imprecise]] [[idea]]; an [[inkling#Noun|inkling]].
##* {{RQ:Emerson Nature|page=86|passage=Every surmise and vaticination of the mind is entitled to a certain respect, and we learn to prefer imperfect theories, and sentences, which contain '''glimpses''' of truth, to digested systems which have no one valuable suggestion.}}
##* {{RQ:Tennyson Poems 1842|volume=II|poem=Will Waterproof's Lyrical Monologue|page=185|passage=Let there be thistles, there are grapes; / If old things, there are new; / Ten thousand broken lights and shapes, / Yet '''glimpses''' of the true.}}
## {{lb|en|rare}} A brief, [[unspecified]] [[amount#Noun|amount]] of [[time#Noun|time]]; a [[moment]].
##: {{synonyms|en|Thesaurus:moment}}
##* {{RQ:Byron Works|volume=VIII|footnote=2|page=21|passage={{...}} Alwin smiled, / When aught that from his young lips archly fell / The gloomy film from Harold's eye beguiled; / And pleased for a '''glimpse''' appeared the woeful Childe.}}
# {{lb|en|obsolete}} A faint (and often [[temporary#Adjective|temporary]]) [[appearance]]; a [[tinge#Noun|tinge]].
#: {{syn|en|glimmer#Noun|hint#Noun|trace#Noun}}
#* {{RQ:Surrey et al Songes|poem=Fickle Affections|folio=4|passage=Reuiued with a '''glimſe''' of grace old ſorowes to let fal, / The hidden ſtraines I know and ſecret ſnares of loue: / How ſoone a loke wil print a thought, that neuer may remoue.}}
#* {{RQ:Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida Q1|act=I|scene=ii|sig=A3|verso=1|page=12|passage=[T]here is no man hath a vertue, that he hath not a '''glimpſe''' of, nor any mã {{quote-gloss|man}} an attaint, but he carries ſome ſtain of it.}}
#* {{RQ:Browne Religio Medici|section=33|page=72|passage=[T]here is not any creature that hath ſo neere a '''glympſe''' of their {{quote-gloss|spirits'}} nature, as light in the Sunne and Elements; {{...}}}}
#* {{RQ:Milton Paradise Regained|lines=91–93|page=6|passage=VVho is this vve muſt learn, for man he ſeems / In all his lineaments, though in his face / The '''glimpſes''' of his Fathers glory ſhine.}}

====Alternative forms====
* {{alter|en|glimse|glympse}} {{qualifier|16th c.|obsolete}}
* {{alter|en|glinse}} {{qualifier|17th c.|obsolete}}

====Derived terms====
*{{l|en| foreglimpse}}
* {{l|en|glemish}} {{qualifier|possibly|obsolete|rare}}
* {{l|en|glimpselike}} {{qualifier|rare}}

====Translations====
{{trans-top-also|brief and incomplete look|glance|peek}}
* Bulgarian: {{t|bg|бегъл поглед|m}}
* Catalan: {{t+|ca|cop d'ull|m}}, {{t+|ca|ullada|f}}
* Dutch: {{t+|nl|glimp|m}}
* Esperanto: {{t|eo|ekvido}}
* Finnish: {{t+|fi|pilkahdus}}, {{t+|fi|vilahdus}}
* French: {{t+|fr|aperçu|m}}
* Galician: {{t|gl|ollada|f}}
* German: {{t+|de|Blick|m}}
* Hebrew: {{t|he|הצצה|tr=hatzatza}}
* Irish: {{t|ga|spléachadh|m}}
* Italian: {{t+|it|occhiata|f}}, {{t+|it|scorcio}}
* Maori: {{t|mi|kitenga wheriko}}, {{t|mi|wheriko}}
* Norman: {{t|nrf|apèrchévance|f}}
* Occitan: {{t+|oc|ulhada|f}}
* Persian: {{t|fa|لمز|tr=lamz}}
* Portuguese: {{t+|pt|olhadela|f}}
* Russian: {{t|ru|[[бе́глый]] [[взгляд]]|m}}
* Scottish Gaelic: {{t|gd|plathadh|m}}
* Spanish: {{t+|es|atisbo|m}}
* Swedish: {{t+|sv|glimt|c}}, {{t+|sv|skymt|c}}
* Welsh: {{t|cy|cip|m}}
* Yiddish: {{t+|yi|אויגנבליק|m}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-top-also|brief, sudden flash of light|glimmer}}
* Bulgarian: {{t+|bg|проблясък|m}}
* Finnish: {{t+|fi|välähdys}}
* Galician: {{t|gl|asexo|m}}, {{t|gl|ateibo|m}}, {{t|gl|relance|m}}
* German: {{t|de|Aufblitzen|n}}, {{t+|de|Aufleuchten|n}}
* Macedonian: {{t|mk|проблесок|m}}
* Portuguese: {{t+|pt|relance|m}}
* Russian: {{t+|ru|проблеск|m}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-see|faint or imprecise idea|inkling}}
{{trans-see|brief, unspecified amount of time|moment}}

===References===
<references/>

===Further reading===
* {{pedia|2=glimpse (disambiguation)}}

===Anagrams===
* {{anagrams|en|a=egilmps|megilps}}