glimpse.
To see or view (someone, or something tangible) briefly and incompletely.
Meaning & usage
To see or view (someone, or something tangible) briefly and incompletely.
To perceive (something intangible) briefly and incompletely.
I have only begun to glimpse the magnitude of the problem.
Chiefly followed by at or upon: to look at briefly and incompletely; to glance.
To shine with a faint, unsteady light; to glimmer, to shimmer.
To appear or start to appear, especially faintly or unclearly; to dawn.
Sometimes followed by out: to provide a brief and incomplete look.
Where this word comes from
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”)
Chiefly followed by of: a brief and incomplete look.
I only got a glimpse of the car, so I can tell you the colour but not the registration number.
A brief, sudden flash of light; a glimmer.
A faint or imprecise idea; an inkling.
A brief, unspecified amount of time; a moment.
A faint (and often temporary) appearance; a tinge.
Where this word comes from
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”)
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.