to heap on praise
- phrasal verb
:
colmar de elogios
- She's not one to heap on praise unless it's truly deserved.
Examples
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Sometimes parents heap on praise to boost their children's confidence.
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The coach didn't hesitate to heap on praise after the team's stunning victory.
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The teacher heaps on praise for her students.
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Why do you heap on praise so easily?
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After her stunning performance, the judges heap on praise for her incredible talent.
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Teachers often heap on praise for students who make significant improvements in their work.
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When the team won the championship, fans heap on praise to the players for their hard work.
Synonyms
201
2.1
To praise someone in public for something they did
95
1.6
To say something nice about someone or their work
86
5.2
To make a person or thing seem better and more important than they really are
67
4.4
To praise someone or something for good work
53
4.5
To praise someone in public with great excitement for their success
30
7.7
To praise someone publicly in a formal way
26
5.6
To praise a person or thing too much, often with strong feeling
19
3.7
To give a person or thing a very large amount of something
9
3.7
Give someone much more than they can handle
7
7.4
To praise something too much to make people want to buy it
7
7.5
To praise someone or something very much
6
4.1
Say strong good things about someone or something in public
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 praise someone too much to make them seem better
1
4.1
To say very good things about someone, often in public
1
6.4
To say too many good things about someone who does not deserve them
1
5.8
Say very good things about someone or something with strong feeling
To praise someone in a way that is not sincere to get a favor
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'heap' (to give or pile up in large amounts) with the prepositional pattern '...on ...' and the noun 'praise' — together signaling giving a large amount of praise. This is a productive, cross-linguistically common composition (e.g., 'heap praise on someone'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase heap on praise may come from the picture of piling praise like a big heap placed on someone, as if you are stacking many kind words on top of them. That's why it means 'to give someone a large amount of praise', often more than is needed.