1
as in to excuse
to make (something) seem less bad by offering excuses
I don't want to gloss over her misbehavior, but keep in mind that she's been under a lot of stress lately
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in to ignore
to dismiss as of little importance
this biographer tends to gloss over his subject's many character flaws
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gloss (over)
Verb
-
Twigg accordingly excused McKinley.—
Mia Cathell,
The Washington Examiner,
29 Jan. 2026 -
In other words, this bill wouldn’t excuse South Dakota residents from the current federal requirements for suppressor ownership.—
Natalie Krebs,
Outdoor Life,
29 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
And ignoring that fact is now no longer a laughing matter.—
Joshua Kloke,
New York Times,
28 Jan. 2026
-
All of these teens had in fact ignored their notices to appear.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Howard, who had served as a second lieutenant with the Ninety‑Second Division, 366th Infantry in France during World War I, accused President Truman of using the Cold War to justify a sweeping peacetime expansion of America’s global military footprint.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Jan. 2026
-
And yet Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claims that the agents were justified despite evidence so clear that it can be found unedited on YouTube.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Former Patriots called out the team for not giving Mayo a fair shot, but after replacing Mayo with Mike Vrabel, all is forgiven.—
Ryan Morik,
FOXNews.com,
30 Jan. 2026
-
Knowing this, you’d be forgiven for having difficulty differentiating one bear from another.—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
29 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Gabbard has not explained her involvement in the case herself.—
David Zimmermann,
The Washington Examiner,
30 Jan. 2026
-
On Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan also reemerges as a restless, sometimes cordial, often corrosive analyst, agreeing at last to engage—if not fully to explain—the whats, hows, and, possibly whys of his creative life.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
The many historic parallels far beyond academia should not be overlooked.—
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld,
Fortune,
1 Feb. 2026
-
The arch would overlook the Potomac River on the other side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial.—
Zac Anderson,
USA Today,
1 Feb. 2026
Verb
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And on Desaceleradas, Beatriz chooses not to explain away cumbia rebajada’s contradictions, but to celebrate its fundamental mystery.—
Philip Sherburne,
Pitchfork,
7 Jan. 2026
-
The historian doesn’t explain away Moore’s infatuation and personal association with the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who in 1975 invited her to attend a meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Kampala.—
Dara T. Mathis,
The Atlantic,
16 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Gloss (over).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gloss%20%28over%29. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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