globe

plural globes

1. Any spherical (or nearly spherical) object.
   1. medicineThe eyeball.

      Synonyms: globus, eyeglobe, bulbus oculi, bulbus

   2. A spherical model of Earth or of another planet.
   3. A part of a device, often a lamp.

      the globe of a lamp

2. AustraliaSouth AfricadatedA light bulb.

   Don't ask for a new globe just because the old one needs dusting. The old-style carbon lamps wasted electricity when they began to fade and it was economy to replace them.

   1920, Southern Pacific Company, Southern Pacific bulletin: volumes 9-10, page 26

3. A circular military formation used in Ancient Rome, corresponding to the modern infantry square.

   Him round / A globe of fiery seraphim enclosed.

   1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

4. in pluralslangquite uncommonA woman's breast or buttock, whichever is more prominent.

   'I got my wig out and my globes,' she joked to E! News host Ryan Seacrest, adjusting her breasts.

   2016 January 11, Caitlin O’Toole, “'I got my wig out and my globes': Katy Perry wears big hair and a VERY low-cut pink dress on red carpet”, in Daily Mail, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2026

   1 more example

   Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez went with her favorite silhouette: a robe-like dress, barely fastened solely in the areas you actually can’t reveal on the red carpet (remember that famous Versace number at the Grammys?). This year, she wore a silver and cream Zuhair Murad that showed off all of her best assets, which even caused Jeremy Renner to blurt out a comment about her “globes” on stage.

   2015 January 15, Paige Reddinger, “The Golden Globes 2015: A Full Tapis Rouge Rundown”, in Fashion Week Daily, archived from the original on 22 Jul 2019

5. obsoleteA group.
6. A land snail of the genus Mesodon.

1. Alternative letter-case form of Globe (“the earth”)

   They aspired to circumaviate the globe.

   5 more examples

   Already Cæſar Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword: Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.

   1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1

   But whatever opinion or theory may be formed by any one, all agree that at some period or other this world has been destroyed by water, and that the proofs of this assertion are found in every part of the globe

   1866, John Locke, A System of Theology

   "Around the World in Eighty Days" once had so much appeal to the imagination that Jules Verne wrote a novel about it. The latest proposal is to girdle the globe in three months in a flying machine. The practicability of such a flight is here discussed by an expert. Mr. Woodhouse is a member of the Aero Club of America and managing editor of "Flying". ¶ When the Aero Club of America received the news that the Panama-Pacific International Exposition had decided to offer $300,000 in prize money for a ninety-day aircraft race around the world, no one connected with aeronautics laughed at the conception or called it the dream of a Verne or a Wells. A map of the course of the race indicates that to circumaviate the globe will mean flights over mountains and deserts, through storms, and across seas. But formidable obstacles in all of these classifications have been surmounted before by airmen, and, of course, can be surmounted again.

   1914 February 28, Henry Woodhouse, “Girdling the Globe by Motor-Driven Aircraft”, in Collier's, volume 52, number 24, page 13

   American built planes and engines penetrated into the Alaskan wilderness at a time when such an overland flight was a marvel of ground organization and daring in the air. An American built plane and engine spanned the continent from dawn to dusk, flying at a speed averaging 160 miles an hour. American engineers and American mechanics designed and constructed the Shenandoah, demonstrating that the rigid aircraft monopoly which had been held by Germany was broken. Americans with equipment completely American were the first to circumaviate the globe—Douglas planes from Santa Monica. Nothing has been finer than this achievement, aided by the splendid sportsmanship of other nationals in cooperating to make the flight a success.

   1925 April 28, Will H. Hays, “Aerial Navigation: A Forceful Aid in Peaceful Commerce”, in Commerce Journal, volume 5, number 5, page 5

   Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

   2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2026, page 18

present singular third person globes · participle present globing · participle past globed · past globed

1. intransitiveTo become spherical.
2. transitiveTo make spherical.

1. The Earth.

   They aspired to circumnavigate the Globe.

2. The Globe Theatre, the famous theatre for which Shakespeare wrote and performed.

   They aspired to replicate the Globe.

3. A city, the county seat of Gila County, Arizona.
4. An unincorporated community in Clark County, Wisconsin.