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Gloom vs Glow - What's the difference?

gloom | glow |

In intransitive terms the difference between gloom and glow

is that gloom is to look or feel sad, sullen or despondent while glow is to feel hot; to have a burning sensation, as of the skin, from friction, exercise, etc.; to burn.

In transitive terms the difference between gloom and glow

is that gloom is to fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen while glow is to make hot; to flush.

gloom

English

Noun

(-)
  • Darkness, dimness or obscurity.
  • the gloom of a forest, or of midnight
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom , I could make out nothing to show me where to work.
  • A melancholy, depressing or despondent atmosphere.
  • Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
  • * Burke
  • A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.
  • A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.
  • Derived terms

    * doom and gloom * gloomily * (l) (humorous) * gloomy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be dark or gloomy.
  • * Goldsmith
  • The black gibbet glooms beside the way.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 189:
  • Around all the dark forest gloomed .
  • to look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
  • * D. H. Lawrence
  • Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
  • To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
  • * Walpole
  • A bow window gloomed with limes.
  • * Tennyson
  • A black yew gloomed the stagnant air.
  • To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
  • * Tennyson
  • Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.
  • * Goldsmith
  • What sorrows gloomed that parting day.
  • To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.
  • glow

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To give off light from heat or to emit light as if heated.
  • To radiate some emotional quality like light.
  • * Dryden
  • With pride it mounts, and with revenge it glows .
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Burns with one love, with one resentment glows .
  • To gaze especially passionately at something.
  • To radiate thermal heat.
  • To shine brightly and steadily.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.}}
  • To make hot; to flush.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Fans, whose wind did seem / To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool.
  • To feel hot; to have a burning sensation, as of the skin, from friction, exercise, etc.; to burn.
  • * Addison
  • Did not his temples glow / In the same sultry winds and scorching heats?
  • * John Gay
  • The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands.

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state of a glowing object.
  • * 1994 , (Stephen Fry), (The Hippopotamus) Chapter 2
  • The door of the twins' room opposite was open; a twenty-watt night-light threw a weak yellow glow into the passageway. David could hear the twins breathing in time with each other.
  • The condition of being passionate or having warm feelings.
  • The brilliance or warmth of color in an environment or on a person (especially one's face).
  • He had a bright red glow on his face.

    Anagrams

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