Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To make glad: synonym: please.
- intransitive verb To be glad.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A plant of the iris family, especially Iris fætidissima. See
Iris , 8. - noun A glade.
- To make glad or joyful; cheer; please.
- Synonyms To comfort, gratify, delight, rejoice, animate, en-liven
- To become glad; rejoice.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To be or become glad; to rejoice.
- transitive verb To make glad; to cheer; to please; to gratify; to rejoice; to exhilarate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To cause (something) to become more
glad . - verb intransitive, archaic To become more glad in one's disposition.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb become glad or happy
- verb make glad or happy
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gladden.
Examples
-
They only stuck the blonde chick in there just to gladden the old woodies in Jesusland.
-
His unabashed Eurocentrism would gladden George Will's wizened heart, but he hasn't yet outed himself as a flaming Italophile.
Boing Boing 2009
-
One of the things I like most about minestrone is its sheer bulk: it's really a big bowl of carb-based joy, with a hefty garnish of vegetables to gladden the heartstrings of health.
-
Over the next two years, the Rao government pushed through a collection of market-based reforms that would gladden the heart of any economic liberal.
Zero-Sum Future Gideon Rachman 2011
-
His speech to Demos today on an open society – the product of more than a year's internal discussion – was one to gladden the left-liberal's heart.
Nick Clegg can only deliver on this rhetoric with Labour | John Kampfner 2011
-
If she wrote these stories to gladden others, it seems they could not quite touch her own heart, and that may be because she never received the serious critical acclaim she wanted.
-
In some ways this federal Europe would gladden the hearts of the founding fathers of European integration.
2021: The New Europe Niall Ferguson 2011
-
If it does happen, there will be for the very first time in Europe Conservatives and Unionists representing all four parts of the United Kingdom as a single grouping in Brussels - that's a fact which will surely gladden every true Unionist heart.
Wales turns True Blue! O'Neill 2009
-
Cockerington Princess, champion of her own sex, also came to gladden our eyes, while the converting into stables of theretofore unused stone winery buildings went apace ....
Jack London's Old Sherry Building Converted to Horse Barn 2010
-
Sometimes, people and institutions change, and get better, and produce surprising results that gladden the heart.
Travails of a Washington sports fan Joel Achenbach 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.