To gloat is to take excessive, smug pleasure in your own success or someone else's misfortune. When you gloat, you rub it in, show off, and make sure everyone knows how great you are or how badly they failed.

Picture a student who aces a test and then walks around saying “I got 100%! What did YOU get?” while smirking at classmates who struggled. That's gloating. Or imagine a chess player who wins and then spends the next ten minutes explaining exactly how their opponent messed up. The victory itself isn't the problem: it's the gloating afterward that bothers people.

The word has an unpleasant feeling to it, and for good reason. When someone gloats, they're being a poor winner. They're more interested in making others feel bad than in genuinely celebrating their achievement. You might hear someone warn, “Don't gloat,” meaning enjoy your success quietly without making others feel worse.

Interestingly, people also gloat over things that have nothing to do with competition, like when someone says “I told you so” after being proven right. The common thread is that boastful, self-satisfied attitude that makes others uncomfortable.