To glower means to stare at someone with an angry, threatening expression. When you glower, your eyebrows draw together, your eyes narrow, and your whole face shows intense displeasure. Glowering is a dark, brooding stare that communicates, “I am very angry with you right now.”

You might glower at a younger sibling who just broke your favorite model airplane, or glower at someone who cut in front of you in the lunch line. A teacher might glower at students who won't stop talking during a lesson. The look itself is meant to show disapproval and can intimidate the person receiving it.

Glowering is different from glaring, which is more piercing and intense. A glower has a sullen, simmering quality to it, like storm clouds gathering rather than lightning striking. When a character in a story glowers, you know they're nursing a serious grudge or working themselves up to an argument. The word captures that specific moment when anger shows itself through a long, dark stare rather than through words or actions.