glancing

adjective

glanc·​ing ˈglan(t)-siŋ How to pronounce glancing (audio)
1
: hitting so as to glance off
a glancing blow
2
: incidental, indirect
made glancing allusions to her past
glancingly adverb

Examples of glancing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Glaser, from a very glancing stylistic consideration, looks like a multicam by comparison. Joe Reid, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2024 Even so, Joonam is too scattershot and distanced from culture and politics to resonate with the news — potentially the film’s greatest draw — in more than a glancing way. Caryn James, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Jan. 2023 But even those with just a glancing knowledge of the man, or a curiosity about him, are likely to find the play less than riveting, mostly a staged debate about the pros and cons of Moses’s achievement. Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 27 Oct. 2022 Unlike the deft, well-oxygenated portraits of, say, Alice Neel — notable for their citrus-fresh, glancing quality — Freud’s portraits are infused with a dense, almost humid atmosphere maintained over long hours, days and months. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2022 See All Example Sentences for glancing

Word History

Etymology

see glance entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1541, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of glancing was circa 1541

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Cite this Entry

“Glancing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glancing. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

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