• (RP) IPA: /ɡlɑːns/
• (America) IPA: /ɡlæns/

glance (glances, present participle glancing; past and past participle glanced)

1. (intransitive) To look briefly (at something).

   She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror.

   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene i]:

     The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.

2. (intransitive) To graze a surface.
3. To sparkle.

   The spring sunlight was glancing on the water of the pond.

   • 1849, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, OCLC 3968433 ↗, (please specify ):

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     From art, from nature, from the schools, / Let random influences glance, / Like light in many a shivered lance, / That breaks about the dappled pools.

4. To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle.
   • 1842, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome/Virginia:

     And all along the forum and up the sacred seat, / His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.

5. To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene v]:

     Your arrow hath glanced.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     On me the curse aslope / Glanced on the ground.

   • 1833, Mary Shelley, The Mortal Immortal

     I started — I dropped the glass — the fluid flamed and glanced along the floor, while I felt Cornelius's gripe at my throat, as he shrieked aloud, "Wretch! you have destroyed the labour of my life!"

6. (soccer) To hit lightly with the head, make a deft header.
7. To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude; to hint; often with at.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Wherein obscurely / Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.

   • c. 1703-1720, Jonathan Swift, An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen

     He glanced at a certain reverend doctor.

• (To look briefly) glimpse

• French: jeter un coup d’œil
• German: blicken
• Italian: dare un'occhiata, sbirciare, occhieggiare
• Portuguese: dar uma olhada/olhadela, olhar de relance
• Russian: взгляну́ть
• Spanish: ojear, echar un vistazo, mirar, pispear

• Italian: radere, rasentare, lambire, sfiorare

glance

1. A brief or cursory look.
   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Dart not scornful glances from those eyes.

2. A deflection.
3. (cricket) A stroke in which the ball is deflected to one side.
4. A sudden flash of light or splendour.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398 ↗, [https://archive.org/stream/paradiseregaindp00milt_0#page/{}/mode/1up page 76]:

     Swift as the lightning glance

5. An incidental or passing thought or allusion.

   • How fleet is a glance of the mind.

6. (mineralogy) Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre.

   copper glance

   silver glance

7. (mineral) Glance coal.

• French: coup d'œil
• German: Blick, Streifblick
• Italian: sguardo, occhiata, scorsa, guardata, sbirciata
• Portuguese: relance, olhadela
• Russian: взгляд
• Spanish: vistazo

• German: Glanz
• Portuguese: deflexão

• German: Steinkohle