Etymology From Middle English glisnen, glistnen, from Old English glisnian, itself from Proto-West Germanic *glisnōn, while ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *glisnōną.
1
To reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash.
Of a wet or greasy surface
The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 202:
Etymology From Middle English glisnen, glistnen, from Old English glisnian, itself from Proto-West Germanic *glisnōn, while ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *glisnōną.
1
A glistening shine from a wet surface.
In his clear northern flesh and his fair hair was a glisten like sunshine refracted through crystals of ice.1920, D.H. Lawrence, chapter 1, in Women in Love: