Glance

n. [Ger. glanz, luster, brightness, glimpse, glance or flash of light, D., Sw., & Icel. glans, shining, lightning, Dan. glands, Icel. glana, to grow light, Eng. gleam.] 1. A sudden shoot of light or splendor. Swift as the lightning's glance. Milton. 2. A sudden look or darting of the sight; a rapid view or cast with the eye; as, a sudden glance; a glance of the eye.

v. i. [imp. & p. p. GLANCED (glānst); p. pr. & vb. n. GLANCING.] 1. To shoot or dart a ray of light or splendor; to shine. When through the gloom the glancing lightnings fly. Rowe. From art, from nature, from the schools, Let random influences glance, Like light in many a shivered lance, That breaks upon the dappled pools. Tennyson. 2. To fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside; as, a glancing ball or shot. On me the curse aslope Glanced on the ground. Milton. 3. To look with a sudden, rapid cast of the eye; to snatch a momentary or hasty view. The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. Shak. 4. To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude;—often with at. He glanced at a certain reverend doctor. Swift. 5. To move quickly, rapidly appearing and disappearing; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle. And all along the forum and up the sacred seat, His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet. Macaulay.

n. (Min.) A dark-colored, metallic sulphuret, as the sulphuret of silver or copper, called respectively silver glance and copper glance. Dana.