gleam

Meanings

1. An appearance of light, especially one which is indistinct or small, or short-lived.
2. An indistinct sign of something; a glimpse or hint.
3. A bright, but intermittent or short-lived, appearance of something.
4. A look of joy or liveliness on one's face.
5. Sometimes as hot gleam: a warm ray of sunlight; also, a period of warm weather, for instance, between showers of rain.
6. Brightness or shininess; radiance, splendour.

1. Chiefly in conjunction with an adverb: to cause (light) to shine.
2. To shine, especially in an indistinct or intermittent manner; to glisten, to glitter.
3. To be strongly but briefly apparent.

1. Of a hawk or other bird of prey: to disgorge filth from its crop or gorge.

Etymology

From Middle English glem, gleam, gleme (“shaft of light; part of a comet’s tail; reflected sparkle; dawn; daylight; radiance (physical or spiritual); something fleeting”), from Old English glǣm (“gleam”), from Proto-Germanic *glaimiz (“brightness; splendour”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognates * German Low German Gleem (“shine, luster, gloss”) * Faroese glæma (“gleam, glimmer”) * Old High German glīmen (“to glow, shine”); gleimo, glīmo (“glowworm”) (Middle High German glīme, gleime) * Old Saxon glīmo (“brightness”)