different between glimpse vs hidebehind

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

hide +? behind

Noun

hidebehind (plural hidebehinds)

1. A creature in United States folklore that may be glimpsed but never seen clearly.
   • 1984, John Wood Campbell (ed.), Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact

     She meets sirens and sea serpents and hidebehinds, wicked kings and repulsive recluses, capitalist magicians and seven-league boots and magic pomegranates.