Library / English Dictionary

GLIMPSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A quick look

Synonyms:

coup d'oeil; glance; glimpse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("glimpse" is a kind of...):

look; looking; looking at (the act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "glimpse"):

eye-beaming (a radiant glance of the eye)

side-glance; side-look (a glance sideways)

Derivation:

glimpse (catch a glimpse of or see briefly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A brief or incomplete view

Example:

from the window he could catch a glimpse of the lake

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("glimpse" is a kind of...):

aspect; panorama; prospect; scene; view; vista (the visual percept of a region)

Derivation:

glimpse (catch a glimpse of or see briefly)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A vague indication

Example:

he caught only a glimpse of the professor's meaning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("glimpse" is a kind of...):

indicant; indication (something that serves to indicate or suggest)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Catch a glimpse of or see briefly

Example:

We glimpsed the Queen as she got into her limousine

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "glimpse" is one way to...):

see (perceive by sight or have the power to perceive by sight)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

glimpse (a quick look)

glimpse (a brief or incomplete view)

Credits

 Context examples: 

"Who wrote it?" asked Beth, who had caught a glimpse of Jo's face.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Astronomers have for the first time caught a glimpse of the earliest stages of massive galaxy construction.

(Telescopes Uncover Early Construction of Giant Galaxy, NASA)

It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was hurried through the hall and into the vehicle, again obtaining that momentary glimpse of trees and a garden.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They all attended in the hall to see him mount his horse, and immediately on re-entering the breakfast-room, Catherine walked to a window in the hope of catching another glimpse of his figure.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

That would have been enough for me, that one glimpse of it, and the sound of the night wind sighing and groaning among the branches.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now both mangonels were at work from the galleys, but so covered and protected that, save at the moment of discharge, no glimpse could be caught of them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Anne mentioned the glimpses she had had of him at Lyme, but without being much attended to.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Mounting to it by two broad steps, and looking through, I thought I caught a glimpse of a fairy place, so bright to my novice-eyes appeared the view beyond.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)