What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Glance vs Narrow - What's the difference?

glance | narrow |

In lang=en terms the difference between glance and narrow

is that glance is to graze a surface while narrow is to get narrower.

As verbs the difference between glance and narrow

is that glance is to look briefly (at something) while narrow is to reduce in width or extent; to contract.

As nouns the difference between glance and narrow

is that glance is a brief or cursory look while narrow is (chiefly|in the plural) a narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.

As an adjective narrow is

having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.

glance

English

Alternative forms

* glaunce (obsolete)

Verb

(glanc)
  • To look briefly (at something).
    • She glanced at her reflection as she passed the mirror.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
  • To graze a surface.
  • To sparkle.
    • The spring sunlight was glancing on the water of the pond.
  • * Tennyson
    • From art, from nature, from the schools, / Let random influences glance , / Like light in many a shivered lance, / That breaks about the dappled pools.
  • To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle.
  • * Macaulay
    • And all along the forum and up the sacred seat, / His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.
  • To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Your arrow hath glanced .
  • * Milton
    • On me the curse aslope / Glanced on the ground.
  • (soccer) To hit lightly with the head, make a deft header.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 18 , author= , title=Wolverhampton 5 - 0 Doncaster , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Doncaster paid the price two minutes later when Doyle sent Hunt away down the left and his pinpoint cross was glanced in by Fletcher for his sixth goal of the season. }}
  • To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude; to hint; often with at .
  • * Shakespeare
    • Wherein obscurely / Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • He glanced at a certain reverend doctor.

    Synonyms

    * (To look briefly) glimpse

    Derived terms

    * glance off * glance over * glance away * glanceable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A brief or cursory look.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • Dart not scornful glances from those eyes.
  • * 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
    • Warwick left the undertaker's shop and retraced his steps until he had passed the lawyer's office, toward which he threw an affectionate glance .
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
    • , passage=But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.}}
  • A deflection.
  • (label) A stroke in which the ball is deflected to one side.
  • A sudden flash of light or splendour.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • swift as the lightning glance
  • An incidental or passing thought or allusion.
  • * (William Cowper) (1731-1800)
    • How fleet is a glance of the mind.
  • (label) Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre.
  • (label) Glance coal.
    • Derived terms
    * at a glance * at first glance * coal glance * cobalt glance * copper glance * steal a glance * wood glance

    narrow

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=14 citation , passage=Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.}}
  • Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
  • * Bishop Wilkins
    • The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.
  • (figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.
  • Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted.
    • a narrow''' mind; '''narrow views
  • * Macaulay
    • a narrow understanding
  • Having a small margin or degree.
    • The Republicans won by a narrow majority.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs
    • , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia, work=BBC Sport citation , passage=As in their narrow defeat of Argentina last week, England were indisciplined at the breakdown, and if Georgian fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili had remembered his kicking boots, Johnson's side might have been behind at half-time.}}
  • (dated) Limited as to means; straitened; pinching.
    • narrow circumstances
  • Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
  • * Smalridge
    • a very narrow and stinted charity
  • Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
  • * Milton
    • But first with narrow search I must walk round / This garden, and no corner leave unspied.
  • (phonetics) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.

    • Antonyms

    * wide * broad

    Derived terms

    * narrowboat, narrow boat * narrow-minded * narrowness

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To reduce in width or extent; to contract.
    • We need to narrow the search.
  • To get narrower.
    • The road narrows .
  • (knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
    • Synonyms
    * taper

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, in the plural) A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
    • the Narrows of New York harbor
  • * Gladstone
    • Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow .
    1000 English basic words