dint

American  

[dint] / dɪnt /

noun

1. force; power.

   By dint of hard work she became head of the company.

   Synonyms:

   struggle, exertion, strain, effort

2. a dent.

3. Archaic. a blow; stroke.

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verb (used with object)

• dints,
  present (3rd person singular)
• dinted,
  past participle,  past
• dinting
  present participle

1. to make a dent or dents in.

2. to impress or drive in with force.

dint British  

/ dɪnt /

noun

1. by means or use of

   by dint of hard work

2. archaic a blow or a mark made by a blow

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verb

1. (tr) to mark with dints

noun

1. a variant of dent 1

dint Idioms  

1. see by dint of.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dintless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• dinting
  present
• dinted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• dint
  simple
• dints
  simple
• have dinted
  perfect
• has dinted
  perfect
• am dinting
  progressive
• are dinting
  progressive
• is dinting
  progressive
• have been dinting
  perfect progressive
• has been dinting
  perfect progressive

Past

• dinted
  simple
• had dinted
  perfect
• was dinting
  progressive
• were dinting
  progressive
• had been dinting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will dint
  simple
• will have dinted
  perfect
• will be dinting
  progressive
• will have been dinting
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dint dints dinted dinting

But amongst MPs in the other place next door, and outside the Houses of Parliament, the idea of continuing to allow aristocrats seats by dint of birth is anathema to many.

From BBC ● Mar. 13, 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

He had a wite coat like a docter but I dont think he was no docter because he dint tell me to opin my mouth and say ah.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Maxwell, removing his hat, straightened out the dints in it before he spoke a few words, and then, thrusting his way through the groups which opened up before him, halted beside the fallen man.

From The League of the Leopard by Harold Bindloss

Your great-grandfather had set his heart upon my wearing the breastplate which still bore the dints of the Scottish spears at Dunbar, but on trying it on we found it was too small for me.

From Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The dints in her face looked very comely as she answered, "I shall, friend Biddle."

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. by Various

I am told that at Calais they made dints in the wall that a man might put his head into.

From The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

His boughs make music of the winter air, Jewelled with sleet, like some cathedral front 15Where clinging snow-flakes with quaint art repair The dints and furrows of time's envious brunt.

From The Vision of Sir Launfal And Other Poems by James Russell Lowell; With a Biographical Sketch and Notes, a Portrait and Other Illustrations by James Russell Lowell

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

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

Not just old and ill fitting, but dinted, cracked, and brittle.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

By dint of dinting, I managed the trick.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

It was when the baby was sleeping in her own bed, its combed head dinting one of her own white pillows, that she looked across to her deft, tactful maid.

From The Second Class Passenger Fifteen Stories by Perceval Gibbon

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

Half the stones of the borgo went after that cavalcade, and fell in a persistent shower upon them, rattling like giant hail upon their armour, dinting many a steel-cap to its wearer's sore discomfort.

From Love-at-Arms by Rafael Sabatini