Glee is a bright, jumping kind of happiness — not quiet pleasure, but the feeling that makes someone’s eyes shine. In the sense you will meet most in stories, there is often a sharp edge: you feel this way because something went wrong for someone else, or because you got your way and they did not. A child who sees a rival drop their ice cream may grin with glee; a villain in a film rubs their hands with glee. English speakers do also use glee for clean, harmless delight — a puppy, a surprise, a goal — with no hurt mixed in. You have to hear the rest of the sentence to know which it is. The unkind shade is old, not a modern twist: the word has carried “mockery” beside “mirth” for a very long time. It is a little vivid and a little old-fashioned. In everyday talk people more often say they were “delighted” or “so happy,” and keep glee for when they want you to picture the shine, or the unkind grin. It is mostly a noun. There is a verb, but you will almost never hear it now.