English has many words for 'look', each with a feel. Which means a quick, brief look?

"Glance" means a quick, brief look, often just a passing glimpse rather than sustained attention — like glancing at a clock to check the time. English has developed many specific "look" verbs precisely because visual attention varies so much in duration and emotional tone, and a single generic word for "look" wouldn't capture those differences.

"Stare" describes a long, fixed look, often intense or impolite, the opposite of a glance's brevity. "Glare" adds anger or hostility to that fixed stare, making it emotionally loaded in a way "glance" never is.

This family of look-verbs — glance, stare, glare, peek, gaze, ogle — lets English speakers convey duration, intent, and emotion in a single word, a level of nuance that would otherwise require a whole descriptive phrase.