glo

n. The twilight; gloaming. [ R. ] Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Gloom. ] 1. Twilight; dusk; the fall of the evening. [ Scot. & North of Eng., and in poetry. ] Hogg. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Sullenness; melancholy. [ Obs. ] J. Still. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ OD. gloeren, glueren, gluyeren. Cf. Glower. ] To squint; to stare. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Gloated; p. pr. & vb. n. Gloating. ] [ Akin to Icel. glotta to smile scornfully, G. glotzen to gloat. ] To look steadfastly; to gaze earnestly; to gaze with passionate desire, lust, or avarice. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To gaze with malignant satisfaction; to exult maliciously, sometimes also triumphantly, in another's loss or discomfort; -- usually in a bad sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

In vengeance gloating on another's pain. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a compact mass, especially of a semiliquid or viscous substance; as, a glob of glue fell on my shoe.
Syn. -- ball, clod, lump, clump, chunk. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

adj. 1. involving the entire earth; not limited or provincial in scope; as, global war; global monetary policy.
Syn. -- planetary, worldwide. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. shaped like a globe; spherical.
Syn. -- ball-shaped, globose, globular, orbicular, spheric, spherical. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. broad in scope or content; comprehensive. Opposite of noncomprehensive.
Syn. -- all-embracing, all-inclusive, across-the-board, blanket(prenominal), broad, complete, panoptic, wide. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

4. (Computers) Accessible and effective throughout an entire computer program, rather than in only one subroutine; -- used of variables; as, global variable. Opposite of local. [ PJC ]

n. def>A worldwide system of electronic navigation in which a vessel, aircraft or missile determines its latitude and longitude by measuring the transmission time from several orbiting satellites. GPS is more precise than any other navigation system available, yielding position accurate within 10 meters 95% of the time.
Syn. -- GPS.
[ RH ]

The precision of the GPS is dependent upon the very high timing accuracy of atomic clocks. Although the military originally intentionally degraded the signal and thus the accuracy for civilian users, GPS was nevertheless more precise than any other navigation system available. In 2000, President Clinton issued an executive order discontinuing the degrading of the signal for civilians. [ RH ]

On June 26, 1993 . . . the U.S. Air Force launched the 24th Navstar satellite into orbit, completing a network of 24 satellites known as the Global Positioning System, or GPS. With a GPS receiver that costs less than a few hundred dollars you can instantly learn your location on the planet -- your latitude, longitude, and even altitude -- to within a few hundred feet.
This incredible new technology was made possible by a combination of scientific and engineering advances, particularly development of the world's most accurate timepieces: atomic clocks that are precise to within a billionth of a second. https://web.archive.org/web/20011125121826/http://www4.nationalacademies.org/beyond/beyonddiscovery.nsf/web/gps?OpenDocument [ PJC ]

n. [ OE. globerde, from glow. ] A glowworm. [ Obs. ] Holland.