| English Dictionary |
GLORIOUS
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Dictionary entry overview: What does glorious mean?
• GLORIOUS (adjective)
The adjective GLORIOUS has 3 senses:
1. having or deserving or conferring glory
2. characterized by grandeur
3. having great beauty and splendor
Familiarity information: GLORIOUS used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having or deserving or conferring glory
Context example:
our glorious literature
Similar:
bright (splendid)
celebrated; historied; storied (having an illustrious past)
divine; elysian; inspired (being of such surpassing excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods)
empyreal; empyrean; sublime (inspiring awe)
illustrious (having or conferring glory)
incandescent (characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance)
lustrous (brilliant)
Also:
known (apprehended with certainty)
Antonym:
inglorious (not bringing honor and glory)
Derivation:
glory (a state of high honor)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by grandeur
Synonyms:
brilliant; glorious; magnificent; splendid
Context example:
the splendid coronation ceremony
Similar:
impressive (making a strong or vivid impression)
Derivation:
glory (brilliant radiant beauty)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having great beauty and splendor
Synonyms:
glorious; resplendent; splendid; splendiferous
Context example:
a kind of splendiferous native simplicity
Similar:
beautiful (delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration)
Derivation:
glory (brilliant radiant beauty)
Context examples
If you are dating seriously, you may become engaged or married on this glorious day.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
“And grown so famous! My glorious Copperfield! Good gracious me, WHEN did you come, WHERE have you come from, WHAT have you been doing?”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Maud was waiting patiently for me, and I took notice, with a thrill of joy, of the queenly poise of her head and her glorious, calm eyes.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
For who can read of the virtues I have mentioned in the glorious Houyhnhnms, without being ashamed of his own vices, when he considers himself as the reasoning, governing animal of his country?
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
For the first time Martin's glorious sleep was interrupted by insomnia, and he tossed through long, restless nights.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable undertaking.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
It was there that we lay upon that glorious afternoon.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"This way, my young friend," said he; "vestigia nulla retrorsum. Never look rearwards, but always to our glorious goal."
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It would be a glorious joke.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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