FLATTERY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does flattery mean? 

• FLATTERY (noun)
  The noun FLATTERY has 1 sense:

1. excessive or insincere praise

  Familiarity information: FLATTERY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLATTERY (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 

Among such friends, however, and such flattery, he did revive.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

"For shame! for shame! this is too much flattery. I forget what we are to have next," turning to the bill.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Thorpe, however, would see her to her chair, and, till she entered it, continued the same kind of delicate flattery, in spite of her entreating him to have done.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him justice, upon the side of kindliness.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There, you are less than civil now; and I like rudeness a great deal better than flattery.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You may imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to myself.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“And I shall be twenty times happier, sir,” said I, with a little—I hope innocent—flattery, “if my employment is to be on the Dictionary.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Poor Harriet! to be a second time the dupe of her misconceptions and flattery.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

And, too, he was human, and could feel the draw of her, while his ego could not but appreciate the flattery of her kindness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But when I ventured to glance at Lord Nelson I found, to my surprise, that, far from showing any embarrassment, he was smiling with pleasure, as if this gross flattery of her ladyship’s were the dearest thing in all the world to him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)