Meanings
comparative more gleesome · superlative most gleesome
- Characterised or marked by glee; gleeful; joyous.
For the bird will sing gleesome dirges in your heart!"
1924, Various, O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 19194 more examples
So long as the men kept sober, Jervis rather liked this, and was never better pleased than when, on the last evening of the week, he heard the voices of the men raised in song, or the squeaking of the merry fiddle and gleesome flute.
1894, Gordon Stables, As We Sweep Through The Deep"And wasn't it just jolly!" gloated a juvenile gleesome voice in a loud whisper.
1907, Peter T. Harkness, Andy the AcrobatThey were “gleesome as kittens, especially when off to a fight or a fire.”
2010, Josephine F. Pacheco, The Pearl“So it was a right gleesome frolic he had that night?”
2014, Julian Stockwin, Pasha
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From glee + -some. Compare Yola gleezom (“joy”).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with gleesome
All rhymes →Cite this entry
gleesome. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gleesome
“gleesome.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gleesome. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gleesome,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gleesome.
Source: gleesome on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.