glance vs slack

glance

noun
  • Glance coal. 

  • An incidental or passing thought or allusion. 

  • Any of various sulphides, mostly dark-coloured, which have a brilliant metallic lustre. 

  • A brief or cursory look. 

  • A stroke in which the ball is deflected to one side. 

  • A deflection. 

  • A sudden flash of light or splendour. 

verb
  • To look briefly (at something). 

  • To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle. 

  • A type of interaction between parent fish and offspring in which juveniles swim toward and rapidly touch the sides of the parent, in most cases feeding on parental mucus. Relatively few species glance, mainly some Cichlidae. 

  • To sparkle. 

  • To make an incidental or passing reflection; to allude; to hint; often with at. 

  • To hit lightly with the head, make a deft header. 

  • To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside. 

  • To graze at a surface. 

slack

noun
  • Small coal; coal dust. 

  • Unconditional listening attention given by client to patient. 

  • A temporary speed restriction where track maintenance or engineering work is being carried out at a particular place. 

  • A tidal marsh or shallow that periodically fills and drains. 

  • The part of anything that hangs loose, having no strain upon it. 

  • A valley, or small, shallow dell. 

verb
  • To slacken. 

  • To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake. 

adj
  • Moderately warm. 

  • Vulgar; sexually explicit, especially in dancehall music. 

  • Not active or busy, successful, or violent. 

  • Excess; surplus to requirements. 

  • Lax; not tense; not firmly extended. 

  • Lacking diligence or care; not earnest or eager. 

  • Lax. 

  • Moderate in speed. 

  • Weak; not holding fast. 

adv
  • Slackly. 

How often have the words glance and slack occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )