DINT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dint mean? 

• DINT (noun)
  The noun DINT has 1 sense:

1. interchangeable with 'means' in the expression 'by means of'

  Familiarity information: DINT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DINT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Interchangeable with 'means' in the expression 'by means of'

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("dint" is a kind of...):

agency; means; way (thing or person that acts to produce a particular effect or achieve an end)

 Context examples 

That one dint in the short, green grass was the only material witness left of this inexplicable nocturnal flight.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I then glanced at her face, and, observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed to surprise her.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Arthur placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I could see its dint in the white flesh.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

By dint of entreaties expressed in energetic whispers, I reduced the half-dozen to two: these however, he vowed he would select himself.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They had by dint of being so very much together, got to speak to each other with a considerable portion of apparent indifference and calmness; but he could not do it now.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

There’s not more’n a few of you could ’it a dint in a pat o’ butter, and if you gets a smack or two it’s all over vith you.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am told that at Calais they made dints in the wall that a man might put his head into.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Traddles now informed me, as the result of his inquiries, that the mere mechanical acquisition necessary, except in rare cases, for thorough excellence in it, that is to say, a perfect and entire command of the mystery of short-hand writing and reading, was about equal in difficulty to the mastery of six languages; and that it might perhaps be attained, by dint of perseverance, in the course of a few years.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When he had really resolved on any measure, he could always carry it through; and now by dint of long talking on the subject, explaining and dwelling on the duty of Fanny's sometimes seeing her family, he did induce his wife to let her go; obtaining it rather from submission, however, than conviction, for Lady Bertram was convinced of very little more than that Sir Thomas thought Fanny ought to go, and therefore that she must.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He wheedled, bribed, ridiculed, threatened, and scolded; affected indifference, that he might surprise the truth from her; declared he knew, then that he didn't care; and at last, by dint of perseverance, he satisfied himself that it concerned Meg and Mr. Brooke.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)