gleam
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L23385 on Wikidata ↗verb
- reflect light well
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɡliːm/ / /ɡlim/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English glem, gleam, gleme (“shaft of light; part of a comet’s tail; reflected sparkle; dawn; daylight; radiance (physical or spiritual); something fleeting”), from Old English glǣm (“gleam”), from Proto-Germanic *glaimiz (“brightness; splendour”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognates * German Low German Gleem (“shine, luster, gloss”) * Faroese glæma (“gleam, glimmer”) * Old High German glīmen (“to glow, shine”); gleimo, glīmo (“glowworm”) (Middle High German glīme, gleime) * Old Saxon glīmo (“brightness”)
- An appearance of light, especially one which is indistinct or small, or short-lived.
“Is not yon gleame, the ſhuddering morne that flakes, / VVith ſiluer tinctur, the eaſt vierge of heauen?”
“Sailing between Madagaſcar and Zeyloon (at or Near this place) in a dark night ſuddenly there happened a gleam of light, ſo bright that he could eaſily read by it. Amazed he vvas at this alteration; but at length perceived it vvas occaſioned by a number of Fiſh, vvhoſe glittering ſhells made that artificial light in the night, and gave the Sea a vvhite repercuſſion: […]”
- An indistinct sign of something; a glimpse or hint.
“The rescue workers preserved a gleam of optimism that the trapped miners might still survive.”
“On the fifteenth of June a gleam of hope appeared.”
- A bright, but intermittent or short-lived, appearance of something.
- A look of joy or liveliness on one's face.
“[H]is black visage lighted up with a curious, mischievous gleam.”
“Sunny, thank you for that smile upon your face / Sunny, thank you, thank you for the gleam that flows its grace”
- Sometimes as hot gleam: a warm ray of sunlight; also, a period of warm weather, for instance, between showers of rain.
“The Pepper-trees live in Italie; the ſhrub of Caſia or the Canell likevviſe in the Northerly regions; the Frankincenſe tree alſo hath been knovvne to live in Lydia: but vvhere vvere the hote gleames of the Sunne to be found in thoſe regions, either to drie up the vvateriſh humor of the one, or to concot and thicken the gumme and roſin of the other?”
“[W]e felt a brisk gale coming from off the Coaſt of America, but ſo violently hot, that vve thought it came from ſome burning Mountain on the ſhore, and vvas like the heat from the mouth of an Oven. Juſt ſuch another gleam I felt one afternoon alſo, as I lay anchor at the Groin in July 1694. it came vvith a Southerly VVind: both theſe vvere follovved by a Thunder-ſhovver.”
- Brightness or shininess; radiance, splendour.
“Then vvas the faire Dodonian tree far ſeene, / Vpon ſeauen hills to ſpread his gladſome gleame, / And conquerours bedecked vvith his greene, / Along the bancks of the Auſonian ſtreame: […]”
“In the clear azure gleam the flocks are ſeen, / And floating foreſts paint the vvaves vvith green.”
verb
Etymology: A variant of Middle English gleimen, gleym (“to smear; to make slimy or sticky; to fill up (the stomach); to nauseate; of a slimy or viscous substance: to be stuck together; (figuratively) to captivate, ensnare; to infect with heresy”) [and other forms], probably a blend of glet (“slimy or viscous matter produced by animals; mucus, phlegm; congestion of mucus or phlegm in the body; viscosity”), gleu (“substance used to stick things together, glue; viscous medicine made from plants”), etc. + Old Norse kleima (“to daub, smear”) (whence Old English clǣman (“to smear”)) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *klaimijaną (“to smear with clay, to mortar”), from *klaimaz (“clay; mortar”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y- (“to glue, stick; to smear”)).
- Of a hawk or other bird of prey: to disgorge filth from its crop or gorge.
“Gleam, a term uſed after a hawk hath caſt and gleameth, or throweth up filth from her gorge.”