glimpse

CEFRB1

/ˈɡlɪm(p)s/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A quick or incomplete look at something.

  2. 02

    verb

    To see or notice something briefly.

Examples

  • At last he stopped before an old house, and caught another glimpse of the town.

  • He caught a glimpse of her in the crowd.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Chiefly followed by at or upon: to look at briefly and incompletely; to glance.

  2. To perceive (something intangible) briefly and incompletely.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To see or view (someone, or something tangible) briefly and incompletely.

More examples

In context

  • We can get a glimpse of the lifestyle of ancient people from this wall painting.

  • I have only begun to glimpse the magnitude of the problem.

  • I only got a glimpse of the car, so I can tell you the colour but not the registration number.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She only caught a quick blank of the deer before it ran into the forest.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

The verb is derived from earlier glimse (obsolete), from Middle English glimsen (“to dazzle; to glisten; to glance with the eyes”), possibly from Old English *glimsian, from Proto-West Germanic *glimmisōjan, from Proto-Germanic *glimō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Doublet of glimmer. The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates Dutch glimp (“glimpse”, noun) Middle Dutch glinsen (modern Dutch glinsteren (“to glint, glitter, shimmer, sparkle; to glance”), glimmen (“to gleam, shine”)) Middle High German glimsen (“to glow, smoulder”), glinsen (“to glimmer, shine”) Middle Low German glinsen, glintzen, glinzen (“to shimmer, shine”)