glime

• glyme (obsolete)

Of uncertain origin. Probably from Middle English glimme (“radiance, brightness”) (whence glim), Scots glim (“glance, glimpse”) or Norwegian Nynorsk glim (“glimpse, glimmer”), all from Proto-Germanic *glīmô. Compare glim, gleam, glimmer, glimpse.

The noun is derived from the verb.

• IPA^(key): /ɡlaɪm/
• Rhymes: -aɪm
• Homophone: glyme

glime (third-person singular simple present glimes, present participle gliming, simple past and past participle glimed)

1. (intransitive, UK dialectal) To glance (at); to look sideways. [from 17th c.]
   • 1898, Alfred Ollivant, “The Storm Breaks” (chapter XXII), in Owd Bob: The Grey Dog of Kenmuir, London: Methuen & Co., page 212:

     He was gliming at her from closer range now, and in her position—for he held her still—she could not help but glime back. He looked so humble—penitent for once, yet reproachful, his own eyes moist, and, withal, the old, audacious David, that in her own despite her anger waned.

   • 1921, Hall Caine, “The Call of Bessie Collister” (chapter 8), in The Master of Man: The Story of a Sin, Philadelphia, London: J.B. Lippincott Company, page 73:

     And on Sunday evenings, while the Primitives were singing a hymn outside their chapel before going in for service, she would be tripping past, lightly shod, and wearing a hat with an ostrich feather, on her way to town, where a German band played sacred music on the promenade, and young people, walking arm-in-arm, laughed and "glimed" at each other under the gas-light.

   • 1999, John F. McDonald, chapter 9, in Tribe, Dublin: Wolfhound Press, →ISBN, page 71:

     A silence falls in the four-wheeler for the rest of the road home. Felix looking straight ahead and concentrating on his driving. The girls asleep in each other's arms on the back seat. And me occasionally gliming in the rear-view mirror. The dark eyes of the Romany woman.

glime (plural glimes)

1. (intransitive, UK dialectal) A sideways glance. [from late 19th c.]
   • 1887, Hall Caine, “The First Night with the Herrings” (chapter X), in The Deemster, London: Chatto & Windus, page 218:

     ‘Aw, ye wouldn't think it's true, would ye, now?’ said Ned, with a wink at Dan and a ‘glime’ at Davy.

• “glime, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “glime, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.