as in peered
to take a look with the eyes narrowed (as because of difficulty seeing)
He squinted in her direction, but couldn't make her out with the sun behind her.
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Recent Examples of squinted
Giles cranked the boat back around, leaned out from behind the steering wheel and squinted past a bright glare on the water.
—
Kelso Harper, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
Amid the eucalyptus groves at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, local bug enthusiast Sasha Hernandez squinted through the draping green leaves, searching for flashes of black and orange — the wings of migratory monarch butterflies traveling from west of the Rocky Mountains.
—Olivia Maule, Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2025
The page squinted up at the nightingale, her dull feathers and stippled breast.
—Hazlitt, 19 Nov. 2025
The Babycatcher looked up at the sky and squinted.
—Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
Kelso Harper, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
Amid the eucalyptus groves at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, local bug enthusiast Sasha Hernandez squinted through the draping green leaves, searching for flashes of black and orange — the wings of migratory monarch butterflies traveling from west of the Rocky Mountains.
—Olivia Maule, Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2025
The page squinted up at the nightingale, her dull feathers and stippled breast.
—Hazlitt, 19 Nov. 2025
The Babycatcher looked up at the sky and squinted.
—Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for squinted
Verb
-
Ballantyne got out of bed and peered through the cabin window.—
Francesca Street,
CNN Money,
3 Mar. 2026
-
Shaping tissues requires forces — that much has been obvious to the physicists who have peered down microscopes for almost as long as biologists have.—
Clare Watson,
Quanta Magazine,
27 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Toronto captain Auston Matthews, who hit the post in the third period on a shot that glanced off Vasilevskiy, has now gone 11 games without scoring, and has just one goal in his last 15 games.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
7 Mar. 2026
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While the umpires awkwardly walked off the field, and while each side’s dugout glanced around for confirmation, the Surprise Stadium public address announcer made the call.—
Shawn McFarland,
Dallas Morning News,
4 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
But now students really stared.—
Deanna Kizis,
Vanity Fair,
4 Mar. 2026
-
One morning this fall, on a stubbly brown field in Boulder, a glider pilot named Dan Swenson stared up at the sky and shook his head.—
Burkhard Bilger,
New Yorker,
2 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Talarico blinked and widened his eyes, gauging the room.—
Tad Friend,
New Yorker,
23 Feb. 2026
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The emails show how easily some digital media figures and companies were taken advantage of; publications that were publishing hundreds of articles a day hardly blinked when a positive article about a financier showed up, or a serious-sounding foundation official asked for an image tweak.—
Max Tani,
semafor.com,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Squinted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/squinted. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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