dint

contraction

1. Pronunciation spelling of didn’t.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English dint, dent, dünt, from Old English dynt (“dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe; the mark left by a blow; the sound or noise made by a blow, thud”), from Proto-Germanic *duntiz (“a blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to strike, hit”). Cognate with Swedish dialectal dunt, Icelandic dyntr (“a dint”). Doublet of dent.

1. Especially in by dint of: force, power.

   “O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel / The dint of pity”

   “It was by dint of passing strength / That he moved the massy stone at length.”

2. The mark left by a blow; an indentation or impression made by violence; a dent.

   “[D]epe wͭ dynt the ſword enforced furſt / had ranſakt through his ribs ⁊ ſwete whyte breſt at once had burſt.”

   “His hands had made a dint, and hurt his maid; / Explored her limb by limb, and feared to find / So rude a gripe had left a livid mark behind.”

3. A blow, stroke, especially dealt in a fight.

   “Much daunted with that dint, her sence was dazd […]”

   “Between them cross-bows stood, and engines wrought / To cast a stone, a quarry, or a dart, // From whence, like thunder's dint, or lightnings new, / Against the bulwarks stones and lances flew.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English dinten, from the noun. Compare Old Norse dynta.

1. To dent.

   “Your helmet was dinted in as if by a great shot.”

   “And, in that moment came one, fierce and wild of aspect, in dinted casque and rusty mail who stood and watched--ah God!”