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We send this word, glower, out to the glaring grumps, the scowling scoundrels, and the pouting pessimists of the world. Its gloomy roots grow in Scotland, where glower (or glowren, to use the older Scottish form of the word) has been used since the late Middle Ages. Originally, the word meant simply "to look intently" or "to stare in amazement," but by the late 1700s, glowering stares were being associated with anger instead of astonishment. We can offer no explanation for this semantic development, but we will submit that in its evolved form it reminds us of an older and unrelated English word: lower (it rhymes with flower) means "to frown or look sullen."
Examples of glower in a Sentence
Philip Elliott, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
Declan, quite a serious character in the novel, proceeds to drink obscene amounts of whiskey and smoke intellectually in the bath, glowering beneath his mustache.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2024
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2025
Each tree has promised itself right up from the ground, branches full of dying...
Elegy Written In A City Cemetery
Sina Queyras
Somebody left the world last night, and last, and
last, and last: wild is the glower of wind, and words
too thin, too meek to shelter.
—Max Ufberg, hazlitt.net, 10 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for glower 
Dictionary Entries Near glower
Cite this Entry
“Glower.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glower. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.
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