glow-up

plural glow-ups · alternative glowup · alternative glow up

1. slangA major and impressive transformation in appearance, talent, power, etc.

   As the country's foremost fountain fashioner in the early 20th century, this Hoosier gave the gardens of wealthy Americans their glow-ups.

   2020, Sarah Bahr, "Powerful Women Of Newfields", Newfields, Spring 2020, page 8

   2 more examples

   I recognised this in college, before he got his teeth done, before he got the tan and the #confidence and the style, back when he was obsessed with Eminem and had terrible bleached hair. I bagged him as my bestie nice and early, before his uber glow-up.

   2017, Vicky Pattison, My Sister's Wedding, →ISBN

   Let us now marvel at a lady who achieved one of the most impressive glow ups in the thousand-plus-years history of the Byzantine Empire: Empress Theodora.

   2018, Hannah Jewell, She Caused a Riot: 100 Unknown Women Who Built Cities, Sparked Revolutions, and Massively Crushed It, unnumbered page

   Antonyms: glow-down