a-glimmering

adverb

a-glim·​mer·​ing ə-ˈgli-mər-iŋ 

Phrases

go a-glimmering US

: to fade away to nothingness : to go away or disappear entirely

Whatever chances Hutchins had for a subsequent opening went a-glimmering when he opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt's rearmament policies in 1940.

—Robert A. McCaughey, New York Times Book Review, 3 Sept. 1989

"But nothing will happen," says Henry Aaron, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Doing anything costs money, and there isn't any. The budget surplus has gone a-glimmering."

—David R. Francis, Christian Science Monitor, 5 Feb. 2002

Word History

Etymology

a- entry 1 + glimmering entry 1

First Known Use

1887, in the meaning defined above

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