Showing results for "gloating"

• present participle of gloat.

gloating

American  

[gloh-ting] / ˈgloʊ tɪŋ /

noun

1. the act of looking at or speaking or thinking about something with excessive, usually smug or malicious satisfaction.

   For all our gloating about how progressive we are on issues of race and sexual orientation, we lag behind on some other human rights issues.

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adjective

1. looking at or speaking or thinking about something in this way.

   Asked about the protester's arrest, the mayor said with a gloating smile, "I wish him luck.”

Other Word Forms

• ungloating
  adjective
• gloatingly
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of gloating

First recorded in 1575–85; gloat ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun; gloat ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gloating

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

Panic and gloating go viral; reality-based exposition doesn’t.

From Slate ● May 15, 2024

But there's also a large element of gloating about this exhibition.

From BBC ● May 1, 2024

But there was another lesson here: To be black and beautiful was not a matter for gloating.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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