“glows” is a form of
glow
UK /ɡləʊ/ · US /ɡloʊ/ verb, noun
Forms glows glowing glowed glew glown glowest glowedst gloweth
- verb To emit heat and light without a flame. “Iron glows red hot when heated to near its melting point.”
- verb Of a fire: to emit heat and light. “The fire was still glowing after ten hours.”
- verb To emit light brightly and steadily as if heated to a high temperature; to shine.
- verb To be very hot; also, to be on fire; to burn.
- verb Of a colour: to be bright; also, of a thing: to have a bright colour. “The new baby’s room glows with bright, loving colours.”
- verb Of a person: to display intense emotion. “a healthy glow”
- verb Of a person's body or a part of it: to feel hot and often to flush (“become suffused with a reddish colour”) as well, due to an emotional response, exertion, etc. “After their workout, the gymnasts’ faces were glowing.”
- verb (chiefly US, Internet slang) To be involved in an (chiefly online) undercover sting operation, especially by American federal agencies.
- noun A state of heat and light being emitted by a hot object.
- noun A state of heat being emitted by a person or an animal's body.
- noun A state of light being emitted by something (for example, a bioluminescent animal or fungus, or a mineral) which is not hot; luminescence.
- noun A state of brightness or warmth of colour; specifically, a reddish colour on a person's face indicating health or youth; a flush. “He had a bright red glow on his face.”
- noun A condition of being passionate or having warm feelings; an ardour.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete except UK, dialectal) To look intently; to stare.
Synonyms
freshness luminescence incandescence radiance glowing gleam gleaming lambency beam radiate shine burn
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English glouen, glowen (“to give off heat and light without flame; of a thing: to be heated until red hot; to be brightly coloured; to shine brightly; (figurative) to be filled with emotion; of the face, etc.: to turn red, flush; etc.”), and then either:
* from Old English glōwan (“to glow”) (a strong verb), from Proto-West Germanic *glōan (“to glow”); or
* because the Middle English and modern English words are weak verbs, possibly from Old Norse *glówa, thought to be a variant of glóa (“to glow”), also a weak verb;
both from Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to glow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to shine, glow; to be shining, glowing”). Possibly a doublet of glass.
The noun is derived from the verb.
* Old Norse glóa (Danish glo, Icelandic glóa, Swedish glo)
* Saterland Frisian gloie, glöie, gluuje
* West Frisian gloeie
From Late Middle English glouen (“to gaze, stare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly either:
* from glouen, glowen (“to give off heat and light without flame; of a thing: to be heated until red hot; to be brightly coloured; to shine brightly; (figurative) to be filled with emotion; of the face, etc.: to turn red, flush; etc.”); or
* from Old Norse glóa (“to shine”) (whence Norwegian Nynorsk glo (“to stare”) and Swedish glo (“to stare”)).
See further at etymology 1.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To shine with an intense or white heat; to give forth vivid light and heat; to be incandenscent.
- verb To exhibit a strong, bright color; to be brilliant, as if with heat; to be bright or red with heat or animation, with blushes, etc. Clad in a gown that glows with Tyrian rays. Dryden.
- verb To make hot; to flush. [Poetic]
- noun White or red heat; incandscence.
Etymology [AS. gl; akin to D. gloeijen, OHG. gluoen, G. glühen, Icel. gl, Dan. gloende glowing. Gloom.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “glow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details