GRATIFYING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gratifying mean? 

• GRATIFYING (adjective)
  The adjective GRATIFYING has 2 senses:

1. pleasing to the mind or feeling

2. affording satisfaction or pleasure

  Familiarity information: GRATIFYING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRATIFYING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pleasing to the mind or feeling

Synonyms:

gratifying; sweet

Context example:

sweet revenge

Similar:

pleasing (giving pleasure and satisfaction)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Affording satisfaction or pleasure

Synonyms:

enjoyable; gratifying; pleasurable

Context example:

good printing makes a book more pleasurable to read

Similar:

pleasant (affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings)

 Context examples 

The quiet, heart-felt satisfaction of the old lady, and the rapturous delight of her daughter—who proved even too joyous to talk as usual, had been a gratifying, yet almost an affecting, scene.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The eleventh house, so lit up for you, suggests that even a small amount of time volunteering could be gratifying.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Anything warm would have been most gratifying.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying mine?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It's very gratifying and agreeable to me, I am sure; but don't you think you could do better?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was exceedingly pleased to hear that Mrs. Ferrars considered it in that light—a very gratifying circumstance you know to us all.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires was the most gratifying consummation of my toils.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Being sled-leader was anything but gratifying to him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

James soon followed his letter, and was received with the most gratifying kindness.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

This exploit was particularly gratifying to the three men; for they stood in need of the outfit which it furnished, and were enabled to make a long-desired trip into the virgin East, where miners had not yet appeared.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)