Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of humour.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But the pro-Slavery champions, in humouring whose extravagant pretensions the best years of his life had been spent, did not forgive him for this eleventh-hour desertion of their cause.

    An American Statesman 1861

  • The old darky looked puzzled, but Mrs. Crittenden, still with the idea of humouring him, nodded for him to obey, and the old man turned toward the stable.

    Crittenden A Kentucky Story of Love and War John Fox 1891

  • The humouring was a little difficult, however; and such indications of a droop in his invention as presented themselves in portions of _Bleak

    The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete John Forster 1844

  • Mrs. Ford rises slowly, "humouring" the march with her stick, her face expressing her delight.

    Waysiders Seumas O'Kelly 1899

  • Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humouring that superstition.

    This column will change your life: The wit and wisdom of Mark Twain Oliver Burkeman 2010

  • We were humouring each other, I think - though the truth is not that far from the fiction, perhaps.

    EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT 5/5: The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar 2009

  • I hold them in the highest regard for tolerating, indeed humouring me, even when the blunt and harsh criticism I often lobbed at them must have given offence.

    Global Voices in English » Talking to Indian-Jamaican writer and blogger Annie Paul 2009

  • But it was widely recognised that he was only humouring her because he was a fond old widower with three married daughters, and she was all he had left, presumably, to fetch his slippers, preside at tea, and torture visitors; his indulgence had limits, however, and he had told her pretty sharp that it was high time she stated her intentions where this pindalickoyee was concerned.

    Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010

  • One thing was sure: I was implicated up to the neck, and as I knelt there sweating my imagination was picturing Willem out yonder, full of spite and sin, disposing of the hapless sentry, humouring the lock of the secret door, stealing up the secret stair knife in hand to the room where his royal victim was asleep ... or dead already?

    Watershed 2010

  • "You must give us a little time, maharaj '," says I, humouring her.

    Fiancée 2010

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