Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: glæm

gleam

2 noun
     
gleam2 [countable]
1 a small pale light, especially one that shines for a short time [= glimmer]
gleam of
They saw a sudden gleam of light.
2 the brightness of something that shines [= glint]
gleam of
the gleam of gold and diamonds
3 an emotion or expression that appears for a moment on someone's face
gleam of
She saw a gleam of amusement in his eyes.
Rose looked at me with a furious gleam in her eyes.
4

something is a gleam in somebody's eye

used to say that something is being planned or thought about, but does not yet exist:
In those days, CD-ROMs were still just a gleam in the eye of some young engineer.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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