Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A source of light, as a candle.
  • noun The illumination given off by such a source.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Brightness; sheen.
  • noun A light, as of a lamp or candle.
  • noun An eye.
  • noun Glimpse; glance.
  • To shine; glimmer.
  • To glance slyly; look askance.
  • Also glime.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Brightness; splendor.
  • noun Slang A light or candle.
  • noun [Slang] put out the light.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang A light, candle, lantern.
  • noun slang An eye.
  • noun obsolete brightness; splendour

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps short for glimmer.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English glimme; of uncertain origin; likely ON; cp. Nor. dial. glim, OSwed. glim & glimma; apparently ultimately from Proto-Germanic *glim-.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Then tomorrow evening you make a particular point of moving out into the offing very well lit up: when you are far out I shall slip past you without a glim, taking your boats in tow as I pass."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 173

    A Sea of Words: "a light of any kind. A candle, a lantern." (215)

    February 29, 2008

  • The venereal disease. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.

    June 14, 2011