Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A slight indication or intimation.
  • noun A brief or indirect suggestion; a tip.
  • noun A statement conveying information in an indirect fashion; a clue.
  • noun A barely perceptible amount.
  • noun Archaic An occasion; an opportunity.
  • intransitive verb To express or state indirectly: synonym: suggest.
  • intransitive verb To indicate or make evident in an indirect manner.
  • intransitive verb To give a hint.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To lay hold of; seize; snatch: a dialectal variant of hent.
  • To suggest in an indirect manner; indicate by allusion or implication; give a hint of.
  • Synonyms 2. Hint, Intimate, Suggest, Insinuate. To hint is to convey an idea in the lightest possible manner, and especially by implication; to let one's thought be known in an indirect, hesitating, or partial manner. To intimate is to convey one's meaning more plainly than by a hint, but still not directly or explicitly. Suggest has a somewhat wide range, often meaning essentially the same as propose or remind (one) of, and ranging down to the meaning of hint: as, to suggest a plan; to suggest more than one says. Insinuate is now generally used in a bad sense; when used in a good sense, it implies pains taken and delicacy of skill. Hints and insinuations are always covert, intimations often, suggestions rarely. An innuendo is a peculiarly dark, crafty, or mean insinuation.
  • To make an indirect reference, suggestion, or allusion.
  • Synonyms Allude (to), Refer (to), etc. See advert, v. i.
  • Behind.
  • noun An act of exertion; a snatch: as, in a hint, in a moment.
  • noun An opportunity; a fit time.
  • noun A suggestion made indirectly; a covert suggestion or implication; an indirect indication, conveyed by speech, gesture, action, or circumstance, whether intentional or unintentional.
  • noun Synonyms See hint, v. t.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To make an indirect reference, suggestion, or allusion; to allude vaguely to something.
  • intransitive verb to allude to lightly, indirectly, or cautiously.
  • transitive verb To bring to mind by a slight mention or remote allusion; to suggest in an indirect manner.
  • noun A remote allusion; slight mention; intimation; insinuation; a suggestion or reminder, without a full declaration or explanation; also, an occasion or motive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A clue.
  • noun A tacit suggestion that avoids a direct statement.
  • noun A small, barely detectable amount of.
  • noun Information in a computer-based font that suggests how the outlines of the font's glyphs should be distorted in order to produce, at specific sizes, a visually appealing pixel-based rendering. Also known as hinting.
  • noun obsolete An opportunity; occasion; fit time.
  • verb To suggest tacitly without a direct statement; to provide a clue.
  • verb To develop and add hints to a font.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a slight indication
  • noun a slight but appreciable amount
  • noun a just detectable amount
  • noun an indication of potential opportunity
  • verb drop a hint; intimate by a hint
  • noun an indirect suggestion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from Middle English hinten, henten, to catch, grasp, from Old English hentan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From obsolete hent, from Old English hentan "to seize," from Proto-Germanic *khantijanan.

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Examples

  • Financial companies, ** hint hint** AIG, have fired back in disagreement, and the Obama Administration has responded to the criticism saying that they treat each company and situation on a case-by-case basis.

    Kim Stolz: The Global Economy: A Global Blame Game 2009

  • No, it is not the gramatically incorrect award that I love so greatly and have never received..hint, hint, but it might be even better; this one is bilingual!

    Prémio Dardos 2009

  • There are three books in the series so far and they are on my wishlist with the hope that I get them for Christmas *hubby hint hint* ;

    Book Chick City Book Chick City 2009

  • And he looks a lot like my Fea *she's a girl, hint hint*

    Skateboarding Parakeet James Gurney 2008

  • So maybe that would be a nice interview * hint hint*

    The Ugly Truth About Tokio Hotel: Vanity Fair Fair, Vanity 2008

  • Ooh, and I also get to see Sophie's dudey new hi-tech camera phone, which I wanted * hint hint* haha.

    fuct-up-girl Diary Entry fuct-up-girl 2004

  • How evil! lol j/k You made up for that. * hint hint* hehe Love you too!

    krazililme Diary Entry krazililme 2003

  • Hopefully * hint hint* he will make a new entry with the airline's name AND sign Grr's guestbook with both flight number (if he has it), arrival time, and airline name.

    jaxraven Diary Entry jaxraven 2003

  • I will go down to Slope Hall; -- give Lady Dorothy a hint that she has it now in her power to make one man happy; -- _a hint_ I believe she never had before.

    Barford Abbey Susannah Minific Gunning

  • I wish people made more poses for girl friends: P * hint hint*

    World of SL 2010

Comments

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  • Othello, Act 1, Scene 3:

    "I should but teach him how to tell my story, / And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake."

    September 2, 2009

  • hint at something.

    February 18, 2012