gloat

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gloat / glōt/ • v. [intr.] contemplate or dwell on one's own success or another's misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure: his enemies gloated over his death.• n. [in sing.] inf. an act of gloating.DERIVATIVES: gloat·er n.gloat·ing·ly adv.ORIGIN: late 16th cent.: 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 cent.

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