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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

glove.

An item of clothing, covering all or part of the hand and fingers, but usually allowing independent movement of the fingers.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɡlʌv//ɡlʊv/Northern-England/ɡləv/common, variant
  1. An item of clothing, covering all or part of the hand and fingers, but usually allowing independent movement of the fingers.

    I wore gloves to keep my hands warm.
    The boxing champ laced on his gloves before the big bout.
  2. A baseball mitt.

  3. The ability to catch a hit ball.

    figuratively
    Frederico had a great glove, but he couldn't hit a curveball, so he never broke into the pros.
  4. A condom.

    slang
  5. A challenge from one to another.

    with-definite-article
    to throw down the glove, i.e. to offer a challenge; to take up the glove, to accept it
Where this word comes from

From Middle English glove, glofe, from Old English glōf, *glōfe, *glōfa, ("glove"; weak forms attested only in plural form glōfan (“gloves”)), from Proto-Germanic *galōfô (“glove”), from Proto-Germanic *ga- (“collective and associative prefix”) + Proto-Germanic *lōfô (“flat of the hand, palm”), from Proto-Indo-European *lāp-, *lēp-, *lep- (“flat”). Cognate with Scots gluve, gluive (“glove”), Icelandic glófi (“glove”). Related to Middle English lofe, lufe (“palm of the hand”). More at loof.

verb/ɡlʌv//ɡlʊv/Northern-England/ɡləv/common, variant
  1. To catch the ball in a baseball mitt.

    transitive
    He gloved the line drive for the third out.
  2. To put a glove or gloves on.

    transitive
    Maxwell gloved his hand so that he wouldn't leave fingerprints, then pulled the trigger.
  3. To touch (a delivery) with one's glove while the gloved hand is on the bat. Under the rules of cricket, the batsman is deemed to have hit the ball.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English glove, glofe, from Old English glōf, *glōfe, *glōfa, ("glove"; weak forms attested only in plural form glōfan (“gloves”)), from Proto-Germanic *galōfô (“glove”), from Proto-Germanic *ga- (“collective and associative prefix”) + Proto-Germanic *lōfô (“flat of the hand, palm”), from Proto-Indo-European *lāp-, *lēp-, *lep- (“flat”). Cognate with Scots gluve, gluive (“glove”), Icelandic glófi (“glove”). Related to Middle English lofe, lufe (“palm of the hand”). More at loof.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.