Overglanced

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Glimpsing at something briefly or casually while looking away halfway through the observation
2. casting a quick, superficial look at an object or scene without full engagement
3. engaging in a momentary and fleeting visual assessment of one's surroundings

Etymology: Overglanced is the past tense of "overglance," a verb built from the prefix "over-" and the verb "glance." The prefix here carries its ordinary sense of passing across or above something, so to overglance a page or a crowd is to look over it quickly and move on without really studying it. "Glance" itself is an older word than its meaning suggests. It entered English as a verb meaning to strike or dart off at an angle, the way a blow or a thrown object skids away from a surface. The idea of a quick, slanting movement of the eyes grew out of that sense, so a glance was originally a kind of ricochet, something that slides past rather than landing. Put together, "overglance" describes a look that skims over its object without settling on it. The word is rare, and its meaning follows directly from its two parts.

Synonyms: overlooked, ignored, missed, neglected, disregarded

Antonyms: noticed, observed, seen, perceived, spotted