Library / English Dictionary

GLISTEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of shining with a bright reflected light

Synonyms:

glisten; glister; glitter; scintillation; sparkle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)

Derivation:

glisten (be shiny, as if wet)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be shiny, as if wet

Example:

His eyes were glistening

Synonyms:

gleam; glint; glisten; glitter; shine

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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

appear; look; seem (give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "glisten"):

spangle (glitter as if covered with spangles)

shimmer (give off a shimmering reflection, as of silk)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence examples:

Lights glisten on the horizon

The horizon is glistening with lights

Derivation:

glisten (the quality of shining with a bright reflected light)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Wolf Larsen was steering, his eyes glistening and snapping as they dwelt upon and leaped from detail to detail of the chase.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Testing the optical properties of a device such as diopter, glare, and irradiance or glistening.

(Device Light Source Performance Evaluation Method, Food and Drug Administration)

Burns obeyed: I looked at her narrowly as she emerged from the book-closet; she was just putting back her handkerchief into her pocket, and the trace of a tear glistened on her thin cheek.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Sleep came upon me as it came on many other outcasts, against whom house-doors were locked, and house-dogs barked, that night—and I dreamed of lying on my old school-bed, talking to the boys in my room; and found myself sitting upright, with Steerforth's name upon my lips, looking wildly at the stars that were glistening and glimmering above me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Tears of disappointment and reproach glistened in her blue eyes, but she said nothing.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Harrison’s eyes glistened at the idea, but he shook his head.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a beautiful dry tunnel with smooth gray walls covered with native symbols, a curved roof which arched over our heads, and white glistening sand beneath our feet.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He sat perched on a high bay horse, and held on to the bridle of a spirited black palfrey, the hides of both glistening from a long run.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The terror of his face lay in his eyes, however, steel grey, and glistening coldly with a malignant, inexorable cruelty in their depths.

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

Then the big gate swung slowly open, and they all passed through and found themselves in a high arched room, the walls of which glistened with countless emeralds.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)