glow.
To emit heat and light without a flame.
Meaning & usage
To emit heat and light without a flame.
Iron glows red hot when heated to near its melting point.
Of a fire: to emit heat and light.
The fire was still glowing after ten hours.
To emit light brightly and steadily as if heated to a high temperature; to shine.
To be very hot; also, to be on fire; to burn.
Of a colour: to be bright; also, of a thing: to have a bright colour.
The new baby’s room glows with bright, loving colours.
Of a person: to display intense emotion.
a healthy glow
The zealots glowed with religious fervor.
Of a person's body or a part of it: to feel hot and often to flush (“become suffused with a reddish colour”) as well, due to an emotional response, exertion, etc.
After their workout, the gymnasts’ faces were glowing.
To be involved in an (chiefly online) undercover sting operation, especially by American federal agencies.
To create a threatening online post that may involve violence, and look suspicious enough to attract a police investigation.
To emit (flame).
To expose (someone) to the authorities.
To make (something) hot; to heat.
Where this word comes from
The verb is derived from Middle English glouen, glowen (“to give off heat and light without flame; of a thing: to be heated until red hot; to be brightly coloured; to shine brightly; (figurative) to be filled with emotion; of the face, etc.: to turn red, flush; etc.”), and then either: * from Old English glōwan (“to glow”) (a strong verb), from Proto-West Germanic *glōan (“to glow”); or * because the Middle English and modern English words are weak verbs, possibly from Old Norse *glówa, thought to be a variant of glóa (“to glow”), also a weak verb; both from Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to glow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to shine, glow; to be shining, glowing”). Possibly a doublet of glass. The noun is derived from the verb. cognates * Dutch gloeien * Finnish loistaa * German glühen * Norwegian glo * Old Norse glóa (Danish glo, Icelandic glóa, Swedish glo) * Saterland Frisian gloie, glöie, gluuje * West Frisian gloeie
A state of heat and light being emitted by a hot object.
A state of heat being emitted by a person or an animal's body.
A state of light being emitted by something (for example, a bioluminescent animal or fungus, or a mineral) which is not hot; luminescence.
A state of brightness or warmth of colour; specifically, a reddish colour on a person's face indicating health or youth; a flush.
He had a bright red glow on his face.
A condition of being passionate or having warm feelings; an ardour.
Where this word comes from
The verb is derived from Middle English glouen, glowen (“to give off heat and light without flame; of a thing: to be heated until red hot; to be brightly coloured; to shine brightly; (figurative) to be filled with emotion; of the face, etc.: to turn red, flush; etc.”), and then either: * from Old English glōwan (“to glow”) (a strong verb), from Proto-West Germanic *glōan (“to glow”); or * because the Middle English and modern English words are weak verbs, possibly from Old Norse *glówa, thought to be a variant of glóa (“to glow”), also a weak verb; both from Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to glow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to shine, glow; to be shining, glowing”). Possibly a doublet of glass. The noun is derived from the verb. cognates * Dutch gloeien * Finnish loistaa * German glühen * Norwegian glo * Old Norse glóa (Danish glo, Icelandic glóa, Swedish glo) * Saterland Frisian gloie, glöie, gluuje * West Frisian gloeie
To look intently; to stare.
Where this word comes from
From Late Middle English glouen (“to gaze, stare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly either: * from glouen, glowen (“to give off heat and light without flame; of a thing: to be heated until red hot; to be brightly coloured; to shine brightly; (figurative) to be filled with emotion; of the face, etc.: to turn red, flush; etc.”); or * from Old Norse glóa (“to shine”) (whence Norwegian Nynorsk glo (“to stare”) and Swedish glo (“to stare”)). See further at etymology 1.
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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.