crow over

Verb

crow over (third-person singular simple present crows over, present participle crowing over, simple past crowed over or crew over, past participle crowed over or crew over or crown over)

1. (transitive) To triumph over (someone).
   • [They are] inferiors to the ministers of the word, as our aduersaries doe confesse, and is plaine also by the cannon lawe they crow ouer them as if they wer their slaues.1588 June, anonymous [John Udall], “No Man to be Admitted to Church Office until by Sufficient Trial and Due Examination He is Found by the Eldership to be Fit”, in A Demonstration of the Trueth of...
   • The world is of an encroaching nature, hard it is to converſe with it, and not come into bondage to it; as Hagar (when Abraham ſhew'd her ſome reſpect more than ordinary) began to conteſt with, yea, crow over her Miſtreſſe; ſo will our worldly employments juſtle with our heavenly, if we keep not a...1659, William Gurnall, “A Third Instance wherein the Power of Holiness Must Appear, and that is in the Christians Worldly Employments”, in The Christian in Compleat Armour or, a Treatise of the...
2. To gloat over (a triumph, an opponent's defeat, someone else's misfortune).
   • The cock frightened me, like some overpowering angel in the Apocalypse. He seemed crowing over the fall of wicked Babylon, or crowing over the triumph of righteous Joshua in the vale of Askelon.1853 December, Herman Melville, “Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! or, The Crowing of the Noble Cock Beneventano”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, OCLC 1641392; republished in...