gleam
Americannoun
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a flash or beam of light.
the gleam of a lantern in the dark.
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a dim or subdued light.
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a brief or slight manifestation or occurrence; trace.
a gleam of hope.
noun
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a small beam or glow of light, esp reflected light
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a brief or dim indication
a gleam of hope
verb
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to send forth or reflect a beam of light
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to appear, esp briefly
intelligence gleamed in his eyes
Usage
What does gleam mean?
A gleam is a flash or flicker of light, as in As Val scrolled through their phone in the dark, the screen projected a gleam of light on their face.
A gleam is also a dim light, such as you might get from a flashlight with a dying battery.
To gleam means to send out a gleam, as in The candle gleamed in the darkness.
To gleam also means to appear quickly and clearly, as a flash of light would.
Example: I love the way this dress gleams in the sun.
Related Words
Gleam, glimmer, beam, ray are terms for a stream of light. Gleam denotes a not very brilliant, intermittent or nondirectional stream of light. Glimmer indicates a nondirectional light that is feeble and unsteady: a faint glimmer of moonlight. Beam usually means a directional, and therefore smaller, stream: the beam from a searchlight. Ray usually implies a still smaller amount of light than a beam, a single line of light: a ray through a pinprick in a window shade.
Other Word Forms
- gleaming adjective
- gleamingly adverb
- gleamless adjective
- gleamy adjective
- outgleam verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of gleam
First recorded before 1000; (noun) Middle English glem(e), Old English glǣm; cognate with Old High German gleimo “glowworm”; akin to Old Saxon glīmo “brightness”; (verb) Middle English, derivative of the noun. See glimmer, glimpse
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.
It was a huge gleaming white web, so thick that he could not see through it.
From Literature
After years of struggling to find white-collar tenants for a gleaming office high-rise on the edge of downtown, he has just begun converting its office space into close to 700 apartments.
From Los Angeles Times
And I waited for Mama and Daddy to notice my gleam.
From Literature
It was definitely another submarine, made of gleaming metal.
From Literature
Places where glazes gleam like car paint, espumas suspend among dough sheets, croissants of a million layers.
From Salon
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.
