gliff
English
Alternative forms
- glift
Etymology
Compare Middle English glyffen (“to give a glancing look; to become startled or frightened”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡlɪf/
- Rhymes: -ɪf
- Homophone: glyph
Noun
gliff (plural gliffs)
- (UK, Scotland, dialect) A transient glance.
- (UK, Scotland, dialect) An unexpected view of something that startles one.
- (UK, Scotland, dialect) A sudden fright.
- (UK, Scotland, dialect) A short moment.
- 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume I (The Black Dwarf), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], OCLC 230697985, page 207:
- [W]ill ye come out and speak just a gliff to ane that has mony thanks to gi'e ye?— […] Wad ye but come out a gliff, man, or but say ye're listening?— […]
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Related terms
- giffle (East Anglia)
Verb
gliff (third-person singular simple present gliffs, present participle gliffing, simple past and past participle gliffed)
- (UK, Scotland, dialect, transitive) To glimpse.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for gliff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)
Welsh
Noun
gliff
- Soft mutation of cliff.
Mutation
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
cliff | gliff | nghliff | chliff |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |