gloat
/ɡləʊt
/verb [no object]
Dwell on one’s own success or another’s misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure: his enemies gloated over his death (as adjective gloating) gloating accounts of his triumphs...
- This helped me to be a great deal less judgmental and to avoid gloating at the misfortune of others.
- My company launched a woman's forum, newspapers gloated over successful women and hotels and boutiques offered discounts to lady patrons.
- Smiling to herself, she gloated silently in her triumph of being the first one in the kitchen; therefore having first dibs on all of the food.
Synonyms
delight in, relish, take great pleasure in, enjoy greatly, revel in, rejoice in, glory in, exult in, triumph over, crow over;
boast about, brag about, feel self-satisfied about, be smug about, congratulate oneself on, preen oneself about, pat oneself on the back about;
rub one's hands together
informal rub it in
archaic pique oneself on
noun [in singular] informal
An act of gloating: I would join her for a good gloat...
- A disaster for the media, but worth a gloat from everyone else.
- The flight coordinator could not contain the gloat as the aircraft lifted off to record another on-time take off.
- He did get the box down, so I could then have a quick gloat over all that loot I have up there, and will take years to get through.
Derivatives
gloater
- But contrary to what the left-wing gloaters who have not bothered to follow the story until last night are writing, I have never made such claims.
- Late last night, I took the time to read the 39-page report - something which, it is clear to me, most of the callous gloaters on the other side of this debate have not bothered to do.
- He is no gloater, but his team's 1-0 victory over his old employers clearly provided a day to savour.
gloatingly
/ adverb ...- It turns out that if we confine ourselves to what the pundits gloatingly call ‘political reality’, the list isn't too spectacular.
- She cedes custody of her boy to her first partner and gives up arguing with the gloatingly triumphant son, as he ferociously denounces her shortcomings as a mother.
- It gloatingly screams that the two leaders have ‘acknowledged receipt of the amount with thanks’.
Origin
Late 16th century: of unknown origin; perhaps related to Old Norse glotta 'to grin' and Middle High German glotzen 'to stare'. The original sense was 'give a sideways or furtive look', hence 'cast amorous or admiring glances'; the current sense dates from the mid 18th century.