Meaning & use
glower
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To stare at someone or something angrily, with a dark, brooding look.
Grammar: No object; usually followed by at: he glowered at the referee.
Patterns
- glower at someone
- glower at something
He glowered at his brother across the table.
The teacher glowered at the noisy class.
She glowered at the screen as the error appeared again.
verbintransitiveliterary
To seem dark, threatening or gloomy, as the sky or a building might.
Grammar: No object; used of weather or scenery: clouds glowered overhead.
Patterns
- glower over something
Dark clouds glowered over the harbor.
The old castle glowered from the hilltop.
The sky glowered all afternoon before the storm.
Word forms
| third person singular | glowers |
|---|---|
| past tense | glowered |
| past participle | glowered |
| -ing form | glowering |
Common combinations
- glower at
- The toddler glowered at the broccoli.
- glower angrily
- He glowered angrily from the corner.
- glower silently
- She glowered silently through the whole meeting.
- glowering sky
- A glowering sky warned of rain.
- glower in the doorway
- He stood glowering in the doorway.
Synonyms and how they differ
- glare
- Glare is a sharper, often shorter look of anger, whereas glower is a darker, more sulky stare.
- scowl
- Scowl describes the frowning face, while glower focuses on the angry stare.
- frown
- Frown is milder and can show worry or concentration, not just anger.
- lower
- Lower, pronounced to rhyme with flower, is a rarer verb meaning to look threatening, used mostly of the sky.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: glower or glow?
glower vs glow
Glow means to shine softly, whereas glower means to stare angrily, and the two are pronounced differently.
Practice
After losing the game, he ______ at his opponent for the rest of the evening.
Choose one answer.
Glowered at means stared angrily. Beamed and chuckled are happy reactions, and glowed does not take at.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “glower”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.