Scrolling in the deep is a weekly column that defines internet slang you need to know to operate online. It runs on Wednesdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter—but only our most dedicated readers get it.
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An obvious pattern to developing slang words is simply giving old actions new names. Take “Cooked” for instance: In a previous column, we went over how it is equivalent to the 2000s’ “you’re toast.” The word “glazing” is no different. The slang, which has been populating TikTok over the past year, is a new moniker for something many of us know very well: Kissing a**.
What is Glazing?
According to online dictionaries, glazing means to overly compliment someone to the point of being “cringe,” and we all know that is a millennial’s worst fear. Sucking up or trying to win someone’s favor by gushing over them will get you called out online for “glazing” too much. To be clear, just like being an a**-kisser, no one wants to be called a major glazer.
Gen Z/Alpha (erm, Zalpha?), as all of the previous brainrot speak, often takes things a little too far. It has gotten to the point where any compliment online is perceived as glazing. As one TikTok user commented under an explainer of the word, “I [literally] just said under a vid ‘you’re so pretty whatt’ and someone said I was glazing.” The word is often used negatively, and it has ballooned from “you’re a suck-up” to “any praise is glazing.”
As for the origin of the word, Know Your Meme clocks its first use in 2021 in Discord, and it increasingly became popular in Twitch streams. The online resource claims the origin of the term itself is sexual in nature, though Gen Alpha doesn’t seem to be aware of that tidbit.
How to use glazing
To properly use the word, all you have to do is catch someone overhyping someone else to the point where it seems disingenuous. For example, if a friend is “rizzing” up a girl or guy in hopes of getting their number, you can call them out for glazing. Is your partner trying to sweet-talk you into doing the dishes tonight? They’re definitely glazing.
Is this glazing?
Though internet users have made sure to warp the definition of glazing where folks are afraid to even compliment someone, there’s still a right and wrong way to use it.
To put your newfound knowledge to the test, we’ll describe a scenario below and you, our readers, get to tell us if it is an example of glazing.
Yes, a cringe-y pop quiz may be ironic given the context, but if we weren’t cringe, this column wouldn’t be necessary. So let’s embrace it!
Scene: Twitter user earnestly tweets after country singer Ingrid Andress sang the national anthem at the viral Home Run Derby in July: “This is the best performance I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Ingrid, you were phenomenal.” Is this glazing?
Ready for a deeper dive on slang? Now you can tune in to ‘Scrolling in the Deep’ on YouTube. Subscribe here for new episodes every week.
To take our pop quiz, and get this column a week before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
Want more Scrolling in the Deep? Check out our previous explainers:
1. Why the kids are ‘mewing’
2. What does ‘Skibidi Ohio Rizz’ actually mean?
3. Is someone ‘mogging’ you?
