Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dint

Dint , noun

[Old English dint, dent, dunt, a blow, Anglo-Saxon dynt; akin to Icelandic dyntr a dint, dynta to dint, and perh. to Latin fendere (in composition). Compare 1st Dent, Defend.]

1.
A blow; a stroke. [Obsolete]
Mortal dint. — Milton
Like thunder's dint. — Fairfax
2.
The mark left by a blow; an indentation or impression made by violence; a dent. — Dryden
Every dint a sword had beaten in it [the shield]. — Tennyson
3.
Force; power; -- esp. in the phrase by dint of.
Now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel The dint of pity. — Shakespeare
It was by dint of passing strength That he moved the massy stone at length. — Sir W. Scott

Dint , transitive verb

To make a mark or cavity on or in, by a blow or by pressure; to dent. — Donne. Tennyson