hints

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
hint/hɪnt/

▶noun

• 1 a slight or indirect indication.

  ■ a very small trace.

• 2 a small piece of practical information.

▶verb indicate indirectly.

■ (hint at) be a slight indication of.

– origin C17 (in the sense ‘occasion, opportunity’): appar. from obs. hent ‘to grasp’, from OE hentan, of Gmc origin; rel. to hunt.