gloat
Americanverb (used without object)
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gloats,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gloated,
past participle, past
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gloating
present participle
noun
-
gloats
plural
verb
noun
Synonym Usage
See glare 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gloatsimple
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gloatssimple
-
have gloatedperfect
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has gloatedperfect
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am gloatingprogressive
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are gloatingprogressive
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is gloatingprogressive
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have been gloatingperfect progressive
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has been gloatingperfect progressive
Past
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gloatedsimple
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had gloatedperfect
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was gloatingprogressive
-
were gloatingprogressive
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had been gloatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gloat
1565–75; perhaps akin to Old Norse glotta “to smile scornfully”; compare German glotzen “to stare”
Explanation
If you gloat, you express great satisfaction at the misfortune of others. If your team scores a big win, it would be better not to gloat. Be happy for your win, but don't laugh at the other team's loss. Gloat seems have come from a Germanic word meaning "to stare." Somehow people may have gotten the sense that whoever was doing the staring was also taking a deep and unwholesome pleasure in whatever he or she was seeing. Think about people staring and pointing and laughing. Sometimes you gloat when someone has rejected the help you have offered. If your little sister won't listen to your advice on how to improve her essay and then comes home with a bad grade, it will be very hard not to gloat and say "I told you so."
Vocabulary lists containing gloat
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
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"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Similarly, in “Spirited Away,” when Chihiro finally wins freedom for herself and her parents, she doesn’t gloat at Yubaba but affectionately calls her “granny” as she leaves.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
If it outperforms in the year ahead, I’ll gloat.
From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026
Loomer, known for her influence over the president, used the moment to gloat about being correct.
From Slate ● Nov. 5, 2025
In some cases, those who took to social media to gloat over his death or post comments that caused offence have been fired or placed on leave by employers.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2025
The way Valley would run away after one of her pranks, how she never seemed to gloat in the moment.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
Dr. Fauci gloats to himself about his working relationship with Mr. Trump until late in the spring.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
“He even gloats, ‘The gods are shining on me today,’ little knowing that he is as out of his depth as River was and is about to meet his demise,” writes Smith in an email.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2024
After "Live and Let Die" villain Dr. Kananga balloons and explodes from ingesting a gas pellet, Roger Moore's Bond gloats, "He always did have an inflated opinion of himself."
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2021
The CIA history all but gloats about crossing this threshold.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2020
Nicasia gloats through the lesson, proud of her heritage.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
Times columnist and editor Bill Boyarsky, and when I asked about his wife, Nancy, he gloated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2023
The crowd heckled people going in and took their photos in hopes of "outing" them, but rather than react with shame, the attendees gloated, smiled, and laughed.
From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2023
I gloated and asked if he could debunk false claims made by his opponent.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 30, 2022
But in the fifth he was burned by good friend Ryan Mountcastle, who was in Harvey’s wedding and gloated with a text and phone call shorty after the game.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2022
"The description,” gloated Mrs. Bruce, "fits her like a glove.”
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who poured a lot of time, money, coordination, pressure, and campaigning into the outcome, was understandably gloating following the result.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2026
And so, when Dubai and other parts of the United Arab Emirates were targeted by some 1,400 Iranian missiles and drones over the past several days, the reaction abroad was often gloating and snark.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
Back in the 1990s, the California-as-disaster-epic narrative was tinged with some gloating — a comeuppance for a star-making destination that for decades was America’s post-war wonderland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2024
I saw McCaskill gloating in her weigh-in - she ate pizza - I think that shows a bit of arrogance.
From BBC ● May 11, 2024
If someone had asked her, a month or even a week before, to guess what she might have felt, she might have anticipated a sliver of gloating, or at least a moment of holier-than-thou.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
