glee
nounverbattested in dialogue
- //ɡliː//
Joy; happiness; great delight, especially from one's own good fortune or from another's misfortune.
noun
- 1
Joy; happiness; great delight, especially from one's own good fortune or from another's misfortune.
I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made.
Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.
- 2
Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- 3
An unaccompanied part song for three or more solo voices, not necessarily merry.
Sometimes they had glees, when Captain Strong’s chest was of vast service, and he boomed out in a prodigious bass, of which he was not a little proud.
Etymology
From Middle English gle, from Old English glēo, glīġ, glēow, glīw (“glee, pleasure, mirth, play, sport; music; mockery”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīw, from Proto-Germanic *glīwą (“joy, mirth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlew- (“to joke, make fun, enjoy”). Cognate with Scots gle, glie, glew (“game, play, sport, mirth, joy, rejoicing, entertainment, melody, music”), Icelandic glý (“joy, glee, gladness”), Ancient Greek χλεύη (khleúē, “joke, jest, scorn”). A poetic word in Middle English, the word was obsolete by 1500, but revived late 18c.
verb
- 1
To sing a glee (unaccompanied part song).
Etymology
From Middle English gleen, glewen, from Old English glēowian (“to sing, play an instrument, jest”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīwōn, from Proto-Germanic *glīwōną. Cognate with Icelandic glýja (“to be gleeful”).
Forms
- plural
- glees
- past tense
- gleed
- past participle
- gleed
- present participle
- gleeing
- third person singular
- glees
glee · Joy; happiness; great delight, especially from one's own good fortune or from another's misfortune.
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