Glew
noun, verb ·1 syllable ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Obsolete form of glue. alt-of, countable, obsolete, uncountable
"When the painting is originally on wood, it must be first detached from the ceiling or wainscot where it was fixed; and the surface of it covered with a linen cloth, cemented to it by means of glew[…]"
- 2 Obsolete form of solder, used in alchemy. alt-of, countable, obsolete, uncountable
"Now Gold is easily associated to and with Copper; and so fit a cuspe, or point made of Gold to this Cupreous Iron; and with Borax and Golden Solidature or Soder (Gold Glew, which is made of Copper Money, a little Silver and Gold melted at the Eye is better) melt it after the accustomed manner, in a fitting Coal-fire, and then you shall have the Golden Nail so much spoken of."
- 1 simple past of glow dialectal, form-of, past
Example
More examples"When the painting is originally on wood, it must be first detached from the ceiling or wainscot where it was fixed; and the surface of it covered with a linen cloth, cemented to it by means of glew[…]"
Etymology
From Middle English glew, glu, etc.
Either formed on the analogy of know, grow (and other verbs which are now weak in the standard such as crow, mow) or inherited from Middle English glew, glewe (“glowed”), in turn from Old English glēow (“glowed”), past tense of Old English glōwan (“to glow”).
More for "glew"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.