Meanings
alternative glass half empty
- idiomaticnot comparablepessimistic
Susan Kropf, the company's president and chief operating officer, says that while the management team is “by nature optimistic,” there is a “glass half empty kind of mentality.” Says Kropf. “We always think about what more we could have done, or how we could have done it better.”
2006, Laura Klepacki, Avon: Building The World's Premier Company For Women
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From the expression "Is the glass half empty or half full?", the answer to which is said to determine whether a person is optimistic or pessimistic.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
glass-half-empty. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glass-half-empty
“glass-half-empty.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glass-half-empty. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “glass-half-empty,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glass-half-empty.
Source: glass-half-empty on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.