Glanced

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɡlɑːnst/

Definitions

1. To look at something or someone very quickly or briefly without focusing intently
2. To direct a short and swift look toward a person or object, capturing only a momentary view
3. To cast one's eyes rapidly over a scene or item, noticing it for only a brief instant

Etymology: "Glanced" is simply the past tense of "glance," so its story is the story of "glance" itself, which is a tangle of at least three unrelated sources. The verb began in Late Middle English as "glenchen," which meant to strike obliquely, as a blow glances off a shield, or to turn quickly aside and dodge. That sense came from two Old French verbs: "glacier," meaning to slide or slip, from "glace" (ice), and "guenchir," meaning to avoid or evade, from a Germanic root meaning to move aside or sway. The sense we use today, a quick look, is a later development. It probably arose when "glenchen" partly merged with the Middle English "glenten," meaning to look askance, which is the ancestor of "glint." That merger may also explain the "n" that sits in the middle of the word. The noun came from the verb, not the other way round.

Synonyms: peeked, glimpsed, saw, spied, noted

Antonyms: stared, gazed, ignored, overlooked