Dint
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /dɪnt/
- Rhymes: -ɪnt
Origin 1
From Middle English dint, dent, dünt, from Old English dynt ("dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe; the mark left by a blow; the sound or noise made by a blow, thud"), from Proto-Germanic *duntiz ("a blow"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- ("to strike, hit"). Cognate with Swedish dialectal dunt, Icelandic dyntr ("a dint"). More at dent.
Alternative forms
Full definition of dint
Noun
dint
(countable and uncountable; plural dints)- (obsolete) A blow, stroke, especially dealt in a fight.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:Much daunted with that dint, her sence was dazd ....
- 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XI, xxxi:Between them cross-bows stood, and engines wrought
- To cast a stone, a quarry, or a dart,
- From whence, like thunder's dint, or lightnings new,Against the bulwarks stones and lances flew.
- Force, power; especially in by dint of.
- ShakespeareNow you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity. - Sir Walter ScottIt was by dint of passing strength
That he moved the massy stone at length. - The mark left by a blow; an indentation or impression made by violence; a dent.
- Tennysonevery dint a sword had beaten in it shield
Derived terms
Verb
- To dent
- 1915, Jeffery Farnol, Beltane The Smith Chapter , And, in that moment came one, fierce and wild of aspect, in dinted casque and rusty mail who stood and watched--ah God!
- 1854, W. Harrison Ainsworth, The Star-Chamber, Volume 2 Chapter , Your helmet was dinted in as if by a great shot.