hint

[hint] /hɪnt/
noun
1.
an indirect, covert, or helpful suggestion; clue:
Give me a hint as to his identity.
2.
a very slight or hardly noticeable amount; soupçon:
a hint of garlic in the salad dressing.
3.
perceived indication or suggestion; note; intimation:
a hint of spring in the air.
4.
Obsolete. an occasion or opportunity.
verb (used with object)
5.
to give a hint of:
gray skies hinting a possible snowfall.
verb (used without object)
6.
to make indirect suggestion or allusion; subtly imply (usually followed by at):
The article hinted at corruption in the mayor's office.
Origin
1595-1605; (noun) orig., opportunity, occasion, apparently variant of obsolete hent grasp, act of seizing, derivative of the v.: to grasp, take, Middle English henten, Old English hentan; (v.) derivative of the noun
Related forms
hinter, noun
unhinted, adjective
Synonyms
1. allusion, insinuation, innuendo; memorandum, reminder; inkling. 5. imply. Hint, intimate, insinuate, suggest denote the conveying of an idea to the mind indirectly or without full or explicit statement. To hint is to convey an idea covertly or indirectly, but intelligibly: to hint that one would like a certain present; to hint that bits of gossip might be true. To intimate is to give a barely perceptible hint, often with the purpose of influencing action: to intimate that something may be possible. To insinuate is to hint artfully, often at what one would not dare to say directly: to insinuate something against someone's reputation. Suggest denotes particularly recalling something to the mind or starting a new train of thought by means of association of ideas: The name doesn't suggest anything to me.
Antonyms
5. express, declare.
Examples from the web for hint
  • But on the other hand, if that coffee date gets put off for a third time, consider taking the hint.
  • The photos and field notes in this gallery back him up, and reveal a hint of menace, for good measure.
  • These oils hint at the wonderful variety of these large, sunny flowers.
  • And this might hint at the project's true value: keeping the kids quiet, wherever you happen to be.
  • The model is overall a light gray with the tiniest hint of green, not sky blue.
  • Mistakes were made, he says, without offering an apology or a hint of culpability.
  • The speck of comfort for some is the hint that the predicament of the budget airlines could be worse still.
  • Voyager data, taken from specific regions within the boundary zone, had offered no hint that the ribbon existed.
  • One hint to the sea's long-term history is that it lies below sea level.
  • Many other pieces also hint at political relevance, often using contrasting images to comment on social issues.
British Dictionary definitions for hint

hint

/hɪnt/
noun
1.
a suggestion or implication given in an indirect or subtle manner: he dropped a hint
2.
a helpful piece of advice or practical suggestion
3.
a small amount; trace
verb
4.
when intr, often foll by at; when tr, takes a clause as object. to suggest or imply indirectly
Derived Forms
hinter, noun
hinting, noun
hintingly, adverb
Word Origin
C17: of uncertain origin
Word Origin and History for hint
n.

c.1600, apparently from obsolete hent, from Middle English hinten "to tell, inform" (c.1400), from Old English hentan "to seize," from Proto-Germanic *hantijanan (cf. Gothic hinþan "to seize"), related to hunt (v.). Modern sense and spelling first attested in Shakespeare.

v.

1640s, from hint (n.). Related: Hinted; hinting.

hint in Technology

Hierarchical Information NeTs.
A language for the CDC 3600.
["HINT: A Graph Processing Language", R.D. Hart, Michigan State U, Apr 1970].
(1994-12-07)
Idioms and Phrases with hint

hint

see: take a hint