The galaxies are impressive by dint their age, but not by dint of their size and mass.—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 13 Dec. 2022 Prisoners facing execution are not patients by dint of a physician standing by.—Joel B. Zivot, STAT, 26 Feb. 2024 At one point, a dancer seems to walk on air, by dint of being sandwiched between, and supported by, two larger castmates.—Celia Wren, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2024 Jackson also suggests—as the keenest observers of American life never fail to do—that the white world might be even more mass-produced and lacking in originality by dint of its privilege.—Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic, 9 Feb. 2024 And yet, by dint of where the show is taking place, that spiritualism is invited.—Vanessa Friedman and Max Lakin, New York Times, 20 Oct. 2023 All politicians are performers of one sort or another, the lucky ones by dint of natural gifts.—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 23 June 2023 Elist told me that what his critics failed to grasp, whether by dint of envy or closed mindedness, was that for every dissatisfied customer there were many more whose lives had improved immeasurably.—Ava Kofman, ProPublica, 26 June 2023 On their own merit, and by dint of their unique ecosystems and plant and animal species that exist nowhere else, the islands were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the first such locations to earn that distinction.—Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 22 May 2023
Verb
Then he was moved to the second unit, which seemed to dint his confidence.—Patrick Murray, Forbes, 23 May 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dint.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, from Old English dynt; akin to Old Norse dyntr noise
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3
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