dint
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
dints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dinted,
past participle, past
-
dinting
present participle
-
to make a dent or dents in.
-
to impress or drive in with force.
noun
-
by means or use of
by dint of hard work
-
archaic a blow or a mark made by a blow
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dintsimple
-
dintssimple
-
have dintedperfect
-
has dintedperfect
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am dintingprogressive
-
are dintingprogressive
-
is dintingprogressive
-
have been dintingperfect progressive
-
has been dintingperfect progressive
Past
-
dintedsimple
-
had dintedperfect
-
was dintingprogressive
-
were dintingprogressive
-
had been dintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dint
before 900; Middle English; Old English dynt; cognate with Old Norse dyntr
Explanation
The word dint is used to indicate that something came about through a particular force or means. So if you make a lot of money, that’s probably by dint of hard work. Dint and dent sound an awful lot alike. The good news is that they are actually related. Dint comes from an Old English word meaning "a hit or strike," often with a sword, and dent later came about as a regional variation in pronunciation. By dint of time, however, dent has come to mean the banged-in place where something hit, and dint is only used in the expression "by dint of" to mean "through the means of."
Vocabulary lists containing dint
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Julius Caesar
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"The Pit and the Pendulum," Vocabulary from the short story
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"One year I paid off £4,300, but the interest was £3,600," he says, "so in reality the only dint I made in that was £700."
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
“Home Alone” certainly made Culkin a star, which was its intention, and O’Hara, by dint of John Hughes’ characterization, an able partner.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2026
Simply by dint of their tablet-like heft, dictionaries make a claim for longevity and authority.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
In presenting many of his bills or ideas, he acted as if they should pass by dint of their sheer excellence—as if old-school politicking was unnecessary and even distasteful.
From Slate ● Dec. 29, 2024
And Dr Strauss tolld Prof Nemur somthing I dint understand so wile they was talking I rote down some of the words in my notebook for keeping my progris riports.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
There was nothing wrong with it except, if one looked closely, a few scratches or dints on its white stone walls, or a neatly drilled hole under a flight of steps.
From France at War On the Frontier of Civilization by Rudyard Kipling
Many had actually perforated the steel plates, 9/16th-inch thick, and there were deep dints innumerable.
From The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" by George Davidson
She took the shield from the corner, and handled the bruises and dints in it lovingly, and made pictures to herself of all the battles and tournaments it had been through with her knight.
From Stories of King Arthur's Knights Told to the Children by Mary MacGregor by Katharine Cameron
Fixed Bench in the Hall, Crowhurst Place, Surrey There still remain in many old houses collections of armour that bears the dints of many fights.
From Vanishing England by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield
Who has not beheld the wounds of the wooden post, which she dints with courageous foil, and attacks with her shield, and goes against with skilful precision?
From Roman Women by Alfred Brittain
A survey conducted at the end of 2018 by Spotted, a data and research provider focused on the celebrity endorsement space, suggested that the furore had barely dinted Hart’s appeal.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 4, 2019
They are dinted and angled to reflect the movement of the sky rather than the city below, enhancing light internally.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2014
Oliver, now 34, was born in Birmingham and five years in New York haven't dinted his Brummie burr.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 23, 2011
From the looks of the grounds, tom and muddy and littered with bits of dinted armor and broken lances, they had been at it for a day or more, but now the end was near.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
The visitors were dinted and haggard and dusty, yet the standard they carried was the lion of Lannister, golden on its crimson field.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
By dint of dinting, I managed the trick.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Wet and bright the dinting pebbles Shine where oft she paused and stood; All her dreamy warmth revolving, While the chilly waters wooed.
From Poems — Volume 1 by George Meredith
I’m for ever and the day after plagued wi’ them, and I do wish those lads ’ud make theirselves a bit useful and catch ’em, instead o’ dinting in black jacks.
From It Might Have Been The Story of the Gunpowder Plot by M. (Madelaine) Irwin
I’ll give it him when I can catch him! and if I serve not our Seth out for dinting in the blackjack last night, I’m a Dutch woman, and no mistake!
From It Might Have Been The Story of the Gunpowder Plot by M. (Madelaine) Irwin
And she held the chubby wrist out to Valeria, showing three little lines dinting the tender flesh.
From The Devourers by Annie Vivanti Chartres
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
