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Definition of dint in English:

dint

Pronunciation /dint/ /dɪnt/

See synonyms for dint

Translate dint into Spanish

noun

  • 1An impression or hollow in a surface.

    ‘the soft dints at the top of a coconut’
    • ‘The hat, I think the style was called fedora, had a dark band and a dint in the top, which my father would sometimes correct with a chopping action of his right hand.’
    • ‘Remove dints and scratches and chips from cars; detail your car inside and out and respray the car, for $1000.’
    • ‘I'm not sure my massive century-old wardrobe can handle any more nicks and dints from ‘careful’ removalists.’
    • ‘The dashboard was marked with dints and encrusted in a thin layer of dust and grime.’
    • ‘Really, the race doesn't start until about lap 100, if we can get to lap 100 and the car's in good shape, hasn't had any dints or scratches, then we're in a good position to push to the end.’
    • ‘I doubt if they had even cared if they knew I have a tyre-shaped dint in my leg when they ran me over with my car.’
    • ‘It was steel, welded in placed and despite a few dints completely undamaged.’
    • ‘They jumped off at a building, which looked the same as all the other building, except this one had a few stains on the pavement and a dint in the wall.’
    • ‘The old gate of St. Pauls Church had a dint in it from a stone thrown during the fight, and this gate is still in the possession of a local farmer.’
    • ‘Unfortunatley, the brand new, shiny 3 week old car now has a huge dint in the rear!’
    • ‘You can see the actual nerves inside the spinal column, plain as plain, and every tiny dint and imperfection on the vertebrae.’
    • ‘Then she would don a thimble, put a dint in the cookie, and fill it with jam.’
    dent, indentation, depression, dip, dimple, cleft, hollow, crater, pit
    View synonyms

  • 2archaic A blow or stroke, typically one made with a weapon in fighting.

    1. 2.1Force of attack; impact.
      ‘I perceive you feel the dint of pity’
      • ‘A goal between the teams and many opportunities fell to Carlow who failed to make any further dints in a very strong and tight Erins Own defence.’
      • ‘It has been proved in recent years that if the police focus resources on certain areas which are notorious for high levels of criminal activity a big dint can be made in the number of offences committed.’
      • ‘And we're talking a lot of meat: 20,000 animals a year before you make a dint on the population.’
      • ‘She'd make a dint in this unwieldy task by visiting schools to make contact with kids before they start dropping out.’

transitive verb

[with object]

  • Mark (a surface) with impressions or hollows.

    as adjective dinted ‘the metal was dull and dinted’
    • ‘Around the walls dinted filing cabinets were cluttered haphazardly.’
    • ‘She hit him as hard as she could but she could tell she hadn't even dinted his muscles of steal.’
    • ‘Its windows were broken and boarded up, the large steel doors dinted and nearly hanging from their hinges, and the walls were covered in a mix of grime, offensive graffiti, and a number of other things they couldn't even identify.’
    • ‘He dropped my arm quickly letting me rub my now dinted side, which is going to bruise by morning.’
    • ‘Someone backed over my car today and dinted my hood and scratched my headlight up.’
    make holes in, make hollows in, hole, dent, indent, depress, dint, pothole
    View synonyms

Phrases

    by dint of

    • By means of.

      ‘he had gotten to where he was today by dint of sheer hard work’
      • ‘Creative work is done not by dint of will power, by some kind of mental exertion; instead, and paradoxically, it comes with the least effort, out of the blue.’
      • ‘She reaches this position by dint of sheer competence.’
      • ‘But one day by dint of sheer chance and perverse good luck Vernon happened to be struck by a rather smashing train of thought.’
      • ‘Trying new and different products by dint of what new and different labels show up on the bar has become second nature to them.’
      • ‘The song succeeds by dint of sheer density and passion.’

Origin

Old English dynt ‘stroke with a weapon’, reinforced in Middle English by the related Old Norse word dyntr; of unknown ultimate origin. Compare with dent.