glow

SayGLOH/ɡloʊ/UK/ɡləʊ/

Verbglows, glowing, glowed

Noun pluralglows

9 meanings of glow

Practice

1
verbintransitive
To give off a steady light, often without flame, as something hot does.
The stained-glass windows glowed in jewel tones as the sun came through.
Long after the campfire died, the embers continued to glow a deep, steady red.
Similarshine, gleam
2
faint lightnounusually singular
The light given off by something that glows, such as embers or a lamp.
A faint orange glow on the horizon told them the town was close.
The cold glow of the screen lit his face as he typed past midnight.
UsageUsually the glow of something, or a faint or warm glow; you can read by the glow of a lamp.
Similarlight, gleam, radiance
3
warm colornounusually singular
Brilliant or warm color in a place or on a person, especially in the face.
A rosy glow crept into her face as she came in from the cold.
The autumn maples gave the whole valley a golden glow.
UsageOften a healthy glow or a rosy glow; something can give a place a golden glow.
Similarflush, blush, bloom
Note
On a person the color usually sits in the face, and context tells whether it comes from health, cold air or embarrassment. Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) pairs the glow with the bloom as the marks of a living, changing thing, set against a thousand years of gloom.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Alfred Tennyson wrote In Memoriam, first published in 1850. en.wikisource.org
The poem pairs glow and bloom with change, contrasting them with a thousand years of gloom. en.wikisource.org
4
show feelingverbintransitive
To show an intense emotion, such as joy, pride, or zeal.
The coach glowed with satisfaction as the final whistle blew.
New parents often glow with a happiness they can hardly put into words.
UsageUsually glow with pride, happiness or satisfaction, sometimes glow from something.
Similarbeam, radiate
Note
Older poetry let it glow with darker heat too. Dryden's Tyrannick Love pictures a fire that every windy passion blows, which "with revenge it glows", and Pope's Iliad pairs it with burning: "Burns with one love, with one resentment glows."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Dryden's Tyrannick Love describes a fire blown by every windy passion and contains the quoted words; the speaker is Placidius. gutenberg.org
Pope's translation of the Iliad contains the quoted line pairing burning with glowing; Achilles speaks it in Book IX. gutenberg.org
5
nounusually singular
The state of feeling passion or warm emotion.
The team basked in the glow of victory for the rest of the week.
Reading her old letters brought back the glow of those early years together.
UsageOften a warm glow, or the glow of success; people bask in the glow of a win.
Similarwarmth
6
verbintransitive
To give off heat, as very hot metal or coals do.
The blacksmith waited until the horseshoe glowed white-hot before he struck it.
Embers can glow hot under the ash for hours, warming anyone who sits close to the fire pit.
UsageWith hot metal, you can say glows red-hot or glows white-hot.

Less common meanings

7
verbintransitive
To feel hot or burn, as the skin does after friction or exercise.
After the sauna and a plunge in the icy lake, my whole body seemed to glow.
Coming in from the cold, he rubbed his ears until they glowed.
Similartingle, burn, flush
Note
The heat is felt rather than given off, and the subject is usually a part of the body: in John Gay's ballad a cord slides swiftly through glowing hands, and in Addison's Cato Sempronius asks whether temples did not glow in sultry winds. Glowing hands burn to their owner; the radiating sense is about heat that others could feel.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
John Gay's ballad describes a cord sliding swiftly through glowing hands. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
Sempronius, speaking about Cato, asks this question in Joseph Addison's Cato. gutenberg.org
8
verbobsoletetransitive
To make something hot or flushed.
Fans, whose wind did seem / To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool.
c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”
Note
Here the verb takes an object and does the heating itself. Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra uses it in a paradox, fans "whose wind did seem / To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool", warming and cooling the same face at once. Everyday English usually turns it around: the cheeks glow, or something makes them glow.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
In this sense, glow is transitive and means to heat something. en.wiktionary.org
William Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra. en.wikipedia.org
The quotation occurs in Enobarbus's speech in Act 2, scene 2, describing fans that paradoxically heat and cool Cleopatra's cheeks. folger.edu
9
verb
To be connected with or part of an undercover sting operation, usually online and especially one run by US federal agencies.

Practice

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Origin

English glow comes through Middle English glowen, probably continuing Old English glōwan. This proposed ancestry leads back through Proto-West Germanic *glōan and Proto-Germanic *glōaną to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁-. Related words include Icelandic glóa, Danish and Norwegian glo, German glühen, Dutch gloeien, and West Frisian gloeie. See also glass.