Glisten
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A glistening shine from a wet surface.
"In his clear northern flesh and his fair hair was a glisten like sunshine refracted through crystals of ice."
- 2 the quality of shining with a bright reflected light wordnet
- 1 To reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash. intransitive
"The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam."
- 2 be shiny, as if wet wordnet
Example
More examples"It has been said there is nothing appertaining to life upon the broad plain. That is hardly true. Looking down from the Sierra Blanco, one sees a pathway traced out across the desert, which winds away and is lost in the extreme distance. It is rutted with wheels and trodden down by the feet of many adventurers. Here and there there are scattered white objects which glisten in the sun, and stand out against the dull deposit of alkali. Approach and examine them! They are bones: some large and coarse, others smaller and more delicate. The former have belonged to oxen, and the latter to men. For fifteen hundred miles one may trace this ghastly caravan route by these scattered remains of those who had fallen by the wayside."
Etymology
From Middle English glisnen, glistnen, from Old English glisnian, itself from Proto-West Germanic *glisnōn, while ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *glisnōną.
More for "glisten"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.