to adulate
1
8.5
- verb
- /ˈædʒʊˌleɪt/
- Formal
:
adular
- To put it mildly, whereas our European forebears still seem to adulate royalty, our genetic code seems to reject it.
Examples
-
At the award ceremony, many attendees adulated the famous actor, praising his every achievement.
-
He has one and only one agenda in his foreign travels: to make them adulate him.
Blog text (9) -
Obama is ideologically empty; his focus is always and only on himself, and ensuring that he is able to 'make people adulate him.'
Blog text (9) -
And for Obama, if you aren't someone who adulates him, he has absolutely no interest in you.
Blog text (9) -
As a student at City College of New York, he was a founder of the Social Problems Club, where young communists and socialists adulated the new Soviet state.
Academic text (1996) -
The fans adulate the singer every time she performs live on stage.
-
It's uncomfortable to be around people who adulate you excessively instead of offering honest feedback.
Synonyms
100
3.6
Praise someone with words you do not mean to get their help
86
5.2
To make a person or thing seem better and more important than they really are
7
7.4
To praise something too much to make people want to buy it
4
5.8
Praise something more than it really deserves
4
6.1
Talk in a very excited way to praise someone or something
1
6.4
To say too many good things about someone who does not deserve them
1
8.9
To talk proudly about your achievements to show off
To praise someone in a way that is not sincere to get a favor
Antonyms
48
7.8
To say bad things about someone without a good reason to make them seem less important
How Flattering
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word adulate comes from the Latin adulari, which meant 'to fawn on' or 'to flatter'. So to adulate someone today is to praise them too much, often in a false way to win their favor.