flattering
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Flatter \Flat"ter\ (fl[a^]t"t[~e]r), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
{Flattered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Flattering}.] [OE. flateren,
cf. OD. flatteren; akin to G. flattern to flutter, Icel.
fla[eth]ra to fawn, flatter: cf. F. flatter. Cf. {Flitter},
{Flutter}, {Flattery}.]
1. To treat with praise or blandishments; to gratify or
attempt to gratify the self-love or vanity of, esp. by
artful and interested commendation or attentions; to
blandish; to cajole; to wheedle.
[1913 Webster]
When I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net
for his feet. --Prov. xxix.
5.
[1913 Webster]
Others he flattered by asking their advice.
--Prescott.
[1913 Webster]
2. To raise hopes in; to encourage or favorable, but
sometimes unfounded or deceitful, representations.
[1913 Webster]
3. To portray too favorably; to give a too favorable idea of;
as, his portrait flatters him.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Flattering \Flat"ter*ing\, a.
That flatters (in the various senses of the verb); as, a
flattering speech.
[1913 Webster]
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
A flattering painter, who made it his care,
To draw men as they ought be, not as they are.
--Goldsmith.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "flattering":
abject, acclamatory, admiring, adulatory, appreciative,
approbatory, backscratching, becoming, beggarly, bland,
blandishing, blarneying, bootlicking, buttery, cajoling,
commendatory, complimentary, courtierly, courtly, cowering,
crawling, cringing, crouching, encomiastic, enhancing, eulogistic,
fair-spoken, fawning, fine-spoken, footlicking, fulsome,
gratifying, groveling, gushing, hangdog, honey-mouthed,
honey-tongued, honeyed, ingratiating, insincere, insinuating, kind,
laudatory, mealymouthed, obeisant, obsequious, oily, oily-tongued,
on bended knee, panegyric, parasitic, prostrate, regardful,
respectful, slimy, slobbery, smarmy, smooth, smooth-spoken,
smooth-tongued, sniveling, soapy, soft-soaping, sponging, sugary,
sycophantic, timeserving, toadeating, toadying, toadyish,
truckling, unctuous, wheedling
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