Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Excessive flattery or admiration.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Servile flattery; excessive or unmerited praise; exaggerated compliment.
- n. Synonyms Adulation, Flattery, Compliment. These are varieties of praise. Adulation is servile and fulsome, proceeding either from a blind worship or from the hope of advantage. It may not be, but generally is, addressed directly to its object. Flattery is addressed to the person flattered; its object is to gratify vanity, with or without a selfish ulterior object. It is generally praise beyond justice. Compliment is milder, and may be expressive of the truth; it may be sincere and designed to encourage or to express respect and esteem. We may speak of a compliment, but not of an adulation or a flattery. Adulation of the conqueror; gross or delicate flattery of those in power; the language of compliment. In conduct, the correspondent to adulation is obsequiousness.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Servile flattery; praise in excess, or beyond what is merited.
WordNet 3.0
- n. servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise
Etymologies
- From French adulation, from Latin adulātio ("flattery"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English adulacioun, from Old French, from Latin adūlātiō, adūlātiōn-, from adūlātus, past participle of adūlārī, to flatter. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Liberals have their own celebrities, and I think sometimes their adulation is a little much.”
“The adulation is similar to the one that was extended to Griffin. (and many before) We'll only be able to judge after a few years of his tenure (if approved).”
“The adulation is similar to the one that was extended to Griffin.”
“I wonder what will happen when the feel-good adulation is dissolved by reality and the dumbed-down true believers awaken to the painful fact that nothing will change?”
“Ignacio particularly loved to imitate exactly the way María Elena walked, turning one foot inward, in adulation rather than any sort of mockery.”
“It won't affect KT, who's just surrounded by love and adulation from the great unwashed anyway, but it would definitely take some of the spice out of the more inane threads by the lesser bloggers.”
“Fortunately the adulation is only a few layers deep.”
“He raised those tattooed arms in adulation of his God, stood from his pew with his head upturned so that tears flowed down his checks and onto his wrinkled neck.”
“I can understand why public displays of emotion in adulation of Jesus might be off-putting or even uncomfortable to some people these days -- and maybe even threatening.”
“Moreover, he has learned that being a callous, insensitive bully has gotten him a loyal audience and enormous adulation from a public that likes raw, obnoxious ranting from their political commentators.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘adulation’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Naresh_Special
portent, organically, malicious, sham, olfactory, vertebrates, protuberance, sensilla, flagitious, pleonastic, exiguous, wayward and 102 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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SAT Master Vocab List
Words I have come across that I don't know the meaning of!
rumination, contrition, extemporize, effusion, exult, vexed, sumptuous, punitive, brethren, harridan, macabre, acrid and 123 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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SAT vocab
abash, abate, abdicate, aberration, abhor, abject, abnegate, abortive, absolve, abstruse, accolade, accost and 175 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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practice 2
100 words
momentous, domicile, adroit, ingenious, dexterous, genius, brevity, decorum, propriety, dignity, err, blunder and 91 more...
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WL_2
repulsion, loath, repugnant, despicable, odious, abhorrence, execrable, detestable, scurvy, animosity, rancor, insurgent and 83 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for adulation.
myth17 Adulation of Apple Fanboys. :D Aug 17, 2012
Kristianto2010 Despite the adulation she received, something troubled her. Guilt overtook her and pushed her to the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Jan 8, 2011