Definition of "glory"

He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […] , the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.

2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891

In this faire wize they traueild long yfere,Through many hard assayes, which did betide;Of which he honour still away did beare,And spred his glorie through all countries wide.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 197

Deeme it no gloire to swell in tyrannie.

c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The First Booke] The First Eclogues”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, page 136

As jewels lose their glory if neglected,So princes their renowns if not respected.

c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, [Act II, scene 2]

Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Luke 2:14

But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.

2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport‎

Seen across the dim candle with his moistened eyes, she looked as if she had a glory shining round her head.

1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 13, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […]

[…] But if thou declareThe Secrets, truth; and art so mad to dare(In glory of thy fortunes) to approue,That rich-crownd Venus, mixt with thee in loue;Ioue (fir’d with my aspersion, so dispred)Will, with a wreakefull lightning, dart thee dead.

c. 1624, “A Hymne to Venus”, in George Chapman, transl., The Crowne of all Homers Workes Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise, His Hymn’s and Epigrams‎, London: John Bill, page 106

In what the Apostle did glory?—He gloried in a Cross... [T]o the Ear of a Galatian, it conveyed much the same Meaning, as if the Apostle had gloried in a Halter; gloried in the Gallows; gloried in a Gibbet.

1753, James Hervey, A Visitation Sermon: Preached at Northampton, May 10, 1753

He says he glories in what happened, and that good may be done indirectly; but I wish he would not so wear himself out now he is getting old, and would leave such pigs to their wallowing.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

When the passion is extreme, suffering may actually be gloried in, provided it be for the ideal cause, death may lose its sting, the grave its victory.

1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures 4 & 5

For if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, I was not put to shame; but as we spake all things to you in truth, so our glorying also, which I made before Titus, was found to be truth.

1881, Revised Version, 2 Corinthians 7:14

Down in a casement sat, / A low sea-sunset glorying round her hair / And glossy-throated grace, Isolt the Queen.

1859–85, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, "The Last Tournament"