different between glimpse vs behold

English

Alternative forms

• glinse
• glimse (obsolete)

Etymology

From earlier glimse, from Middle English glimsen (“to glisten, be dazzling, glance with the eyes”), akin to Middle High German glimsen (“to glow, smoulder”), Middle High German glinsen (“to shine, glimmer”), Middle Dutch glinsen and Middle Low German glinsen, glintzen, glinzen (“to shine, shimmer”), Dutch glinsteren (“to glitter, sparkle, shimmer, glint, glance”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?mps/
• Rhymes: -?mps

Noun

glimpse (plural glimpses)

1. A brief look, glance, or peek.
   • 1798, Samuel Rogers, An Epistle to a Friend

     Here hid by shrub-wood, there by glimpses seen.

   • Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.

2. A sudden flash.
3. A faint idea; an inkling.

Translations

Verb

glimpse (third-person singular simple present glimpses, present participle glimpsing, simple past and past participle glimpsed)

1. (transitive) To see or view briefly or incompletely.

   I have only begun to glimpse the magnitude of the problem.

2. (intransitive) To appear by glimpses.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Drayton to this entry?)

Synonyms

• perceive, notice, detect, espy, spot, catch sight of

Translations

Anagrams

• megilps

English

Etymology

From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan (“to hold, have, occupy, possess, guard, preserve, contain, belong, keep, observe, consider, behold, look at, gaze on, see, signify, avail, effect, take care, beware, be cautious, restrain, act, behave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihaldan? (“to hold with, keep”), equivalent to be- +? hold. Cognate with Saterland Frisian behoolde (“to keep”), Dutch behouden (“to keep, restrain, preserve”), German behalten (“to keep, restrain, remember”), Danish and Norwegian beholde (“to keep”) and Swedish behålla (“to keep”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??h??ld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b??ho?ld/

Verb

behold (third-person singular simple present beholds, present participle beholding, simple past beheld, past participle beheld or (rare) beholden)

1. (transitive) To see or look at, esp. appreciatively; to descry, look upon.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:

     […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]
2. (intransitive) To look.
3. (transitive) To contemplate.

Usage notes

Rarely used in informal speech. The past participle beholden now has a meaning detached from the other forms of the word.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:look

Derived terms

• beholder
  • eye of the beholder

Translations

Interjection

behold

1. look, a call of attention to something
2. lo!

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:lo

Translations

References

• behold in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• behold in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b?e?h?l?]

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German beholt, behalt, from the verb beholden; see also Danish beholde.

Noun

behold c (uninflected)

1. (archaic) haven, refuge

   in the phrases i behold (“intact”) and i god behold (“safe”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde