Crossword clues for flattery
flattery
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flattery \Flat"ter*y\, n.; pl. Flatteries. [OE. flaterie, OF. flaterie, F. flaterie, fr. flater to flatter, F. flatter; of uncertain origin. See Flatter, v. t.] The act or practice of flattering; the act of pleasing by artful commendation or compliments; adulation; false, insincere, or excessive praise.
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
--Rambler.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
--Burke.
Syn: Adulation; compliment; obsequiousness. See Adulation.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 14c., "dishonest praise, coaxing speech," from Old French flaterie "flattery, cajolery" (Modern French flatterie), from flater "to flatter" (see flatter).
Wiktionary
n. (context uncountable English) excessive praise or approval, which is often insincere and sometimes contrived to win favour.
WordNet
n. excessive or insincere praise
Wikipedia
Flattery (also called adulation or blandishment) is the act of giving excessive compliments, generally for the purpose of ingratiating oneself with the subject.
Historically, flattery has been used as a standard form of discourse when addressing a king or queen. In the Renaissance, it was a common practice among writers to flatter the reigning monarch, as Edmund Spenser flattered Queen Elizabeth I in The Faerie Queene, William Shakespeare flattered King James I in Macbeth and Niccolò Machiavelli flattered Lorenzo II de' Medici in The Prince.
Flattery is also used in pick-up lines when attempting to initiate romantic courtship.
Most associations with flattery, however, are negative. Negative descriptions of flattery range at least as far back in history as The Bible. In the Divine Comedy, Dante depicts flatterers wading in human excrement, stating that their words were the equivalent of excrement, in the 8th Circle of Hell.
An insincere flatterer is a stock character in many literary works. Examples include Wormtongue from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Goneril and Regan from King Lear, and Iago from Othello.
Historians and philosophers have paid attention to flattery as a problem in ethics and politics. Plutarch wrote an essay on "How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend." Julius Caesar was notorious for his flattery. In his Praise of Folly, Erasmus commended flattery because it "raises downcast spirits, comforts the sad, rouses the apathetic, stirs up the stolid, cheers the sick, restrains the headstrong, brings lovers together and keeps them united."
"To flatter" is also used to refer to artwork or clothing that makes the subject or wearer appear more attractive, as in:
- The King was pleased with the portrait, as it was very flattering of his girth.
- I think I'll wear the green dress because it flatters my legs.
Usage examples of "flattery".
With Coelin, the attraction had come from his flattery of her and his handsome face, and she knew now how false and shallow that had been.
She meant that she was in such a state that every word of praise would only sound like the falsest of flattery.
Beatrice passed along on her way to get a chunk of chestnut cake to defend herself with in case of a Ghibelline outbreak before she got to school, at the same old stand where they sell the same old cake to this day and it is just as light and good as it was then, too, and this is not flattery, far from it.
He sang all our praises in very nice Haussa words, and indulged in the most extraordinary flattery I ever heard.
Job or Ayud, a simple Curd, magnanimously smiled at his pedigree, which flattery deduced from the Arabian caliphs.
If we even do know vices in men, we can scarce show ourselves in a nobler virtue than in the charity of concealing them: if that be not a flattery persuading to continuance.
And when the rewards go to nonperformance, to flattery, or to mere cleverness, the organization will soon decline into nonperformance, flattery, or cleverness.
Who did this jerk think he was, trying to soften her into increasing the Pieds Nus allotment with cheap flattery and hints that he might share his collection of rare early music?
By the pen of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery has been reduced into a pompous and trifling volume, which the vanity of succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement.
Roman people loudly demanded a greater number of victims, the conqueror resisted with firmness and humanity, those servile clamors, which were dictated by flattery as well as by resentment.
The Sathans were won over with flattery and given a reason to despise a rival, and that was an irresistible combination.
Ratchip had forwarded a handful of semiliterate messages from delirious garners, praising Skullpulper in what passed for gushing flattery.
The former tyrants, Caligula and Nero, Commodus, and Caracalla, were all dissolute and inexperienced youths, educated in the purple, and corrupted by the pride of empire, the luxury of Rome, and the perfidious voice of flattery.
Success produces Love of Flattery: his daily Gratification - His Merits and Acts of Kindness - His proper Choice of Almsmen - In this respect meritorious - His Predecessor not so cautious.
Claudius himself who is writing this book, and no secretary of his, and not one of those official annalists, either, to whom public men are in the habit of communicating their recollections, in the hope that elegant writing will eke out meagreness of subject-matter and flattery soften vices.