glow

English

Etymology

From Middle English glowen, from Old English glōwan, from Proto-Germanic *glōaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gloie, glöie, gluuje, West Frisian gloeie, Dutch gloeien, German glühen, Danish and Norwegian glo, Icelandic glóa, Finnish loistaa. See also glass.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡləʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡloʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ

Verb

glow (third-person singular simple present glows, present participle glowing, simple past glowed or (dialectal) glew, past participle glowed or (dialectal) glown)

1. To emit light as if heated.

   The fire was still glowing after ten hours.

2. (copulative) To radiate thermal heat.

   Iron glows red hot when heated to near its melting point.

   After their workout, the gymnasts' faces were glowing red.

3. To display intense emotion.

   The zealots glowed with religious fervor.

   You are glowing from happiness!

   • 1669 June (first performance), John Dryden, Tyrannick Love, or, The Royal Martyr. , London: H Herringman, , published 1670, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii, page 19:

     A fire which every windy paſſion blows; / With pride it mounts, and with revenge it glows.

   • 1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book IX”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott , →OCLC:

     Burns with one love, with one resentment glows.

4. To gaze especially passionately at something.
5. To shine brightly and steadily.

   The new baby's room glows with bright, loving colors.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

6. (transitive) To make hot; to flush.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Fans, whose wind did seem / To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool.

7. (intransitive) To feel hot; to have a burning sensation, as of the skin, from friction, exercise, etc.; to burn.
   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, page 5:

     Did not his temples glow / In the same sultry winds and scorching heats?

   • 1727, John Gay, Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan:

     The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands.

8. (intransitive, Internet slang) To be related to or part of an (chiefly online) undercover sting operation, especially by American federal agencies.
   • 2018 August 26, anonymous author, “Cryptographic crumpling: The encryption 'middle ground' for government surveillance”, in alt.privacy‎ (Usenet):

     If this post glows any brighter I'm going to need sunglasses. 😄🕶👌

9. (Internet slang, alt-right) to expose someone to the authorities.
10. (Internet slang, alt-right) to create a threatening online post that may involve violence, and look suspicious enough to attract a police investigation.

Derived terms

Related terms

• gleed
• glowie (an informant, a spy)

Translations

See also

• (internet slang): fedpost

Noun

glow (countable and uncountable, plural glows)

1. The light given off by a glowing object.
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     Thus all that Art and Con had to do, when the night was favourable, was to advance a little way along the avenue, until they reached the place whence the light, if it was burning, must be visible, as a glow, a feeble glow, in the air, and thence to go on, towards the back door, or to go back, towards the gate, as the case might be.

   • 1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

     The door of the twins' room opposite was open; a twenty-watt night-light threw a weak yellow glow into the passageway. David could hear the twins breathing in time with each other.

2. The condition of being passionate or having warm feelings.
3. The brilliance or warmth of color in an environment or on a person (especially one's face).

   He had a bright red glow on his face.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto II:

     O, not for thee the glow, the bloom,
     ⁠Who changest not in any gale,
     ⁠Nor branding summer suns avail
     To touch thy thousand years of gloom: […]

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• gowl, w.l.o.g., wlog

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English glīwian.

Verb

glow

2. Alternative form of glewen (“to play music, have fun”).

Etymology 2

From Old French gluer.

Verb

glow

2. Alternative form of glewen (“to glue”).