gliff

G2L1I1F4F4
/ɡlɪf/

noun

A quick glance.

Scrabble 12
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Meanings

noungliff (plural gliffs)

plural gliffs · alternative glift

  1. ScotlandarchaicA quick glance.
  2. ScotlandarchaicAn unexpected view of something startling.
  3. ScotlandarchaicA sudden fright.
  4. ScotlandarchaicA short moment.

    [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?— […]

    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, page 207
verbgliff (third-person singular simple present gliffs, present participle gliffing, simple past and past participle gliffed)

present singular third person gliffs · participle present gliffing · participle past gliffed · past gliffed · alternative glift

  1. ScotlandarchaictransitiveTo glimpse.

Origin

Compare Middle English glyffen (“to give a glancing look; to become startled or frightened”).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with gliff

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All rhymes →

Sounds the same

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Cite this entry
APA

gliff. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gliff

MLA

“gliff.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gliff. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gliff,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gliff.

Source: gliff on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.