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FLATTERY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Excessive or insincere praise
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("flattery" is a kind of...):
compliment (a remark (or act) expressing praise and admiration)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flattery"):
adulation (servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise)
blandishment; cajolery; palaver (flattery intended to persuade)
blarney; coaxing; soft soap; sweet talk (flattery designed to gain favor)
puffery (a flattering commendation (especially when used for promotional purposes))
Derivation:
flatter (praise somewhat dishonestly)
Context examples:
You men tell us we are angels, and say we can make you what we will, but the instant we honestly try to do you good, you laugh at us and won't listen, which proves how much your flattery is worth.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Without studying the business, however, or knowing what he was about, Edmund was beginning, at the end of a week of such intercourse, to be a good deal in love; and to the credit of the lady it may be added that, without his being a man of the world or an elder brother, without any of the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small talk, he began to be agreeable to her.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
But he was now married; and she condemned her heart for the lurking flattery, which so much heightened the pain of the intelligence.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
For a little while Emma persevered in her silence; but beginning to apprehend the bewitching flattery of that letter might be too powerful, she thought it best to say, (...)
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
There was so much of friendliness, and of flattery, and of everything most bewitching in his reception there; the old were so hospitable, the young so agreeable, that he could not but resolve to remain where he was, and take all the charms and perfections of Edward's wife upon credit a little longer.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Instead of answering, as she probably would have done, had there been no friendship and no flattery in the case, I do not like him at all, she directly replied, I like him very much; he seems very agreeable.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
And without attempting any farther remonstrance, she left Fanny to her fate, a fate which, had not Fanny's heart been guarded in a way unsuspected by Miss Crawford, might have been a little harder than she deserved; for although there doubtless are such unconquerable young ladies of eighteen (or one should not read about them) as are never to be persuaded into love against their judgment by all that talent, manner, attention, and flattery can do, I have no inclination to believe Fanny one of them, or to think that with so much tenderness of disposition, and so much taste as belonged to her, she could have escaped heart-whole from the courtship (though the courtship only of a fortnight) of such a man as Crawford, in spite of there being some previous ill opinion of him to be overcome, had not her affection been engaged elsewhere.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Ahab did not like Micaiah, because he never prophesied good concerning him, but evil; probably he liked the sycophant son of Chenaannah better; yet might Ahab have escaped a bloody death, had he but stopped his ears to flattery, and opened them to faithful counsel.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Lady Middleton was ashamed of doing nothing before them, and the flattery which Lucy was proud to think of and administer at other times, she feared they would despise her for offering.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Her ignorance is hourly flattery.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
