glove
Americannoun
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gloves
plural
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a covering for the hand made with a separate sheath for each finger and for the thumb.
verb (used with object)
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gloves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gloved,
past participle, past
-
gloving
present participle
-
to cover with or as if with a glove; provide with gloves.
-
to serve as a glove for.
idioms
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throw down the glove. gauntlet.
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handle with kid gloves. kid gloves.
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hand and glove. hand.
-
take up the glove. gauntlet.
noun
-
(often plural) a shaped covering for the hand with individual sheaths for the fingers and thumb, made of leather, fabric, etc See also gauntlet 1
-
any of various large protective hand covers worn in sports, such as a boxing glove
-
informal in an intimate relationship or close association
-
informal to treat with extreme care
-
informal (of a dispute, argument, etc) conducted mercilessly and in earnest, with no reservations
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
glovesimple
-
glovessimple
-
have glovedperfect
-
has glovedperfect
-
am glovingprogressive
-
are glovingprogressive
-
is glovingprogressive
-
have been glovingperfect progressive
-
has been glovingperfect progressive
Past
-
glovedsimple
-
had glovedperfect
-
was glovingprogressive
-
were glovingprogressive
-
had been glovingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of glove
before 900; Middle English; Old English glōf; cognate with Old Norse glōfi
Explanation
A glove is a piece of clothing that you wear on your hand, to protect it or keep it warm. Most people wear a pair of gloves, unless — of course — they are imitating Michael Jackson. Cold-weather gloves are soft and warm, made from fabrics like wool, polar fleece, or leather. There are also gloves that protect the skin on your hands while you're cleaning, using chemicals, or washing dishes; and gloves that prevent the spreading of germs, worn by food handlers and health care workers. Athletes sometimes wear gloves as well, like boxing gloves or the gloves worn by hockey goalies.
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:
Roki Sasaki has been tremendous since the All-Star break — that new glove has been a giant success — but he’s still never started a postseason game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
Cartoon-sized glove gives Dodgers’ pitcher his mojo back.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Manager Dave Roberts and his pitching coaches haven’t been particularly forthcoming, either, feigning ignorance about the glove that looks as big as Sasaki’s head.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The remedy, at least temporarily, is an enormous glove that enables Sasaki to better hide his grip and leave batters guessing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
I yank off my glove and hold my hand under his nose, feeling hot breath.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Wearing disposable gloves, he used aluminum foil to collect the meteorite fragments and placed them in glass jars.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
“At first, the new works were more nostalgic, with vintage photos and female ephemera, like gloves and such,” Saar said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
The white gloves are an obvious tell, even before you even get to early film shorts that the House of Mouse would rather you forget or overlook altogether.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
According to the NCA, Jogesh owned and controlled a company set up in 2020 to buy and sell nitrile gloves, while Morris helped in a number of fraudulent deals in 2020 and 2021.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
He’d pulled off his driving gloves to shake hands with Dad.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
During a stop at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, an owl perched on her gloved arm made her squeal like the girl she had been during her first visit there on a grade-school field trip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Nancy Guthrie, 84, disappeared on the night of January 31-February 1, with recovered security camera footage showing a masked and gloved person prowling outside her home in the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
Anderson flayed a boundary to make it two to win but then gloved a Neil Wagner short ball down leg.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
On a Wednesday in February in the Coachella Valley, more than two dozen farmworkers weaved up and down rows of strawberries, their gloved hands flicking quickly to pluck the fruit and stash it in boxes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
The rope goes suddenly tight around my waist and I clamp tight with my gloved hand—it doesn’t take much strength.
From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
"This business is very significant because it's been here since 1862. It's the last of the old gloving businesses in Yeovil," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2023
But Jesse Winker took a circuitous route to gloving it and Rengifo recognized it, hustling to second for a double.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2022
The Santa Margarita shortstop couldn’t have played it any better, gloving the ball and firing it to first.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2022
In public, we now cover and constrain ourselves as never before, masking our faces, gloving our hands.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2020
Mr. Simlins watched the shawling and gloving with attention.
From Say and Seal, Volume II by Warner, Susan
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.
