Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Smooth, flattering talk.
- n. Deceptive nonsense.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Exceedingly complimentary language; flattery; smooth, wheedling talk; pleasing cajolery.
- To talk over or beguile by wheedling speeches; flatter; humbug with agreeable talk.
Wiktionary
- n. Ability to talk constantly.
- n. Mindless chatter.
- n. Persuasive flattery or kind speech. The ability to tell a man to go to hell, in such a way as he will look forward to the trip.
- v. To beguile with flattery.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. colloq. Smooth, wheedling talk; flattery.
- v. To influence by blarney; to wheedle with smooth talk; to make or accomplish by blarney.
WordNet 3.0
- n. flattery designed to gain favor
- v. influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
Etymologies
- Named after a legendary magical stone in Blarney Castle, Ireland that gives the gift of eloquence. See also Blarney Stone. (Wiktionary)
- After the Blarney Stone in Blarney Castle, Blarney, Ireland. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Usually the expression blarney is applied to flattery designed to gain a favor.”
“No doubt his blarney was a source of inspiration for me.”
“Yankee-Gentile and Jew, and his blarney was a commodity that stood him in good stead.”
“Anything would have been better than the echoes of the sprightliness at the lower end of the table, where Ulick was talking what he would have called blarney to Miss Susan Northover and Miss Mary Anne”
“At least one Irish blogger, Suzy Byrne, stepped forward to call blarney on that:”
“The Irish have a perfect word to describe what's happening in Ulster - 'blarney'.”
“These monks must have had some serious "blarney" as well as "bottle" to set off from their monastery on the island of Iona to replace Odin and Thor with a God who turned the other cheek and preached love.”
“Smith plainly assured the agent that his "blarney" would avail him nothing; he had come by their own appointment to get his pay, and that he certainly should _have_ -- if not in the way they themselves agreed upon, he would choose his own method of getting it!”
“She will use "blarney" as a science in an artful way.”
“That'll do, Dick; I don't want any more of that kind of blarney; and if you don't shut up, you or I will get a black eye.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘blarney’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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phrontistery - b
List of words from phrontistery.info
blandish, blazon, blench, blendling, blendure, blewit, blunge, blype, borné, borsella, borzoi, boscage and 582 more...
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The Cheese Connoisseur's List of...
Names of cheeses from around the world, blatantly stolen from every source available to me.
"A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with one eye." - Jean Anthelme Brillat-S...edam, cheddar, jack, monterrey jack, mozzarella, mozzarella di bufala, mozzarella fior d..., mozarella affumicata, scamorza, parmesan, gorgonzola, emmenthal and 256 more...
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Trash Talk
Words that indicate meaningless, confusing or deceptive talk.
white noise, blarney, pidgin, jabber, bullshit, yadda yadda yadda, mishmash, farrago, gobbledygook, yammer, drivel, jargon and 18 more...
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Tip-Top Toponymic
Place names that have entered general speech. Toponyms that interest me in other ways are on Place Names Of Distinction
hamburger, wiener, finlandisation, vernissage, hackney, venetians, bohemian, anti-macassar, berliner, cravat, calico, serendipity and 113 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Words and phrases of Irish origin, or...
not necessarily eponyms, but might be
boycott, blarney, banshee, galore, keen, donnybrook, colleen, drumlin, phoney, clan, cairn, ceili and 122 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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Nakoo's list of beautiful words.
Just about any word I like at the time.
razbliuto, anaxiphilia, lipothymous, inamorata, acushla, abulia, serendipity, alexithymia, quixotic, idiosyncratic, ad nauseam, equanimity and 305 more...
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mikepurvis's Words
consequentially, outrageous, shindig, mediocre, quintessential, vigilante, fabulous, ostentatious, pedantry, in the wild, buffet, amorphous and 122 more...
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B is for Blue Canary
My B Words
bugbear, bette davis eyes, backstroke, barney, babushka, babycakes, backscratcher, bad news bears, balderdash, ballyhoo, baloney, bamboozle and 150 more...
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GRE uncommon
patronage, expletive, exhort, exegesis, execrable, excommunicate, evince, escarpment, ersatz, ergo, epoxy, snare and 1202 more...
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Humbug and bafflegab
oil, rot, gas, gup, pop, jive, bull, jazz, guff, pish, tosh, flam and 83 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for blarney.
hernesheir Cf. division (comments), gift of gab, blarney. Oct 2, 2009
hernesheir A hard Irish cows' milk cheese similar to the Danish Samso. Jan 20, 2009