Definition of dint in English:
dint
See synonyms for dintTranslate 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, pitView synonyms2 archaic A blow or stroke, typically one made with a weapon in fighting.
- 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.’
- 2.1Force of attack; impact.
Pronunciation
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, potholeView synonyms
Pronunciation
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.
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