glory
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡlɔː.ɹi/
ipa: /ˈɡloɹ.i/
ipa: [ˈɡlɔɹ.i]
ipa: /ˈɡloː.ɹi/
note: without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /ˈɡlo(ː)ɹi/
rhymes: -ɔːɹi
Forms: form: glories
Etymology: From Middle English glory, glorie, from Old French glorie (“glory”), from Latin glōria (“glory, fame, renown, praise, ambition, boasting”). Doublet of gloria. Displaced native Old English wuldor.
Senses: examples: text: He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
ref: 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
glosses: Great beauty and splendor.
examples: text: In this faire wize they traueild long yfere,
Through many hard assayes, which did betide;
Of which he honour still away did beare,
And spred his glorie through all countries wide.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 197:
glosses: Honour, admiration, or distinction, accorded by common consent to a person or thing; high reputation; renown.
examples: text: Deeme it no gloire to swell in tyrannie.
ref: c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
text: As jewels lose their glory if neglected,
So princes their renowns if not respected.
ref: c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: He's the only person I know who's going to vote at all. Most people have given up on politicians. After all, politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember.
ref: 1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 3, in The Parable of the Sower:
glosses: That quality in a person or thing which secures general praise or honour.
examples: text: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 2:14:
glosses: Worship or praise.
topics: climatology
engineering
meteorology
natural-sciences
optics
physical-sciences
physics
synonyms: anticorona
glosses: An optical phenomenon, consisting of concentric rings and somewhat similar to a rainbow, caused by sunlight or moonlight interacting with the water droplets that compose mist or clouds, centered on the antisolar or antilunar point.
examples: text: But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.
ref: 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: Victory; success.
examples: text: How does the Luſtre of our Father’s Actions,
Through the dark Cloud of Ills that cover him,
Break out, and burn with more triumphant Brightneſs!
His Suff’rings ſhine, and ſpread a Glory round him; […]
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
text: Seen across the dim candle with his moistened eyes, she looked as if she had a glory shining round her head.
ref: 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 13, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:
glosses: An emanation of light supposed to shine from beings that are specially holy. It is represented in art by rays of gold, or the like, proceeding from the head or body, or by a disk, or a mere line.
topics: lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: The manifestation of the presence of God as perceived by humans in Abrahamic religions.
examples: text: […] But if thou declare
The Secrets, truth; and art so mad to dare
(In glory of thy fortunes) to approue,
That rich-crownd Venus, mixt with thee in loue;
Ioue (fir’d with my aspersion, so dispred)
Will, with a wreakefull lightning, dart thee dead.
ref: c. 1624, “A Hymne to Venus”, in George Chapman, transl., The Crowne of all Homers Workes Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise, His Hymn’s and Epigrams, London: John Bill, page 106:
glosses: Pride; boastfulness; arrogance.
examples: text: It was a woman’s clothing, beyond a doubt, […] The two men gazed at the heap of feminine glories, — it might have been the most wonderful sight they ever had seen.
ref: 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
glosses: Something glorious.
Synonyms: sense: emanation of light proceeding from specially holy beings
word: halo
word: praise
word: worship
word: fame
word: honor
word: honour
Derived terms: beglory
blaze of glory
cover oneself in glory
crowning glory
dark jungle glory
degree of glory
disglory
foreglory
Gloria
glorification
gloriful
glorify
gloriless
gloriness
glorious
gloriously
glorisome
glory be
Glory Be
glory box
glory-box
glory boy
glory bush
glory days
gloryful
glory-hole
glory hole
glory hunter
glory-land
gloryless
glory lily
glory-of-the-snow
glory-of-the-sun
glory pea
glory tree
glory wall
glory-worthy
hand of glory
hour of glory
in all one's glory
in glory
Japanese morning glory
jungle glory
Kentish glory
kingdom of glory
knickerbocker glory
Mexican morning glory
moment of glory
morning glory
purple glory-of-the-sun
vainglory