Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To regard with pleasure, wonder, and approval.
  • intransitive verb To have a high opinion of; esteem or respect.
  • intransitive verb Chiefly New England & Upper Southern US To enjoy (something).
  • intransitive verb Archaic To marvel or wonder at.
  • intransitive verb To marvel at something. Often used with at.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To regard with wonder or surprise; wonder or marvel at: formerly used literally, but now chiefly in an ironical or sarcastic sense, with reference to meaning 2: as, I admire your audacity.
  • To regard with wonder mingled with approbation, esteem, reverence, or affection; feel admiration for; take pleasure in the beauty or qualities of; look on or contemplate with pleasure.
  • To wonder; be affected with surprise; marvel: sometimes with at.
  • To feel or express admiration.
  • To feel pleasure; be pleased: as, I should admire to go.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Archaic To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at.
  • transitive verb To regard with wonder and delight; to look upon with an elevated feeling of pleasure, as something which calls out approbation, esteem, love, or reverence; to estimate or prize highly.
  • intransitive verb To wonder; to marvel; to be affected with surprise; -- sometimes with at.

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

  • verb obsolete, transitive To be amazed at.
  • verb transitive To regard with wonder and delight.
  • verb transitive to look upon with an elevated feeling of pleasure, as something which calls out approbation, esteem, love or reverence;
  • verb transitive to estimate or prize highly; as, to admire a person of high moral worth, to admire a landscape.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb feel admiration for
  • verb look at with admiration

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French admirer, from Old French amirer, from Latin admīrārī, to wonder at : ad-, ad- + mīrārī, to wonder (from mīrus, wonderful; see smei- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French admirer, from Latin admīror, from ad + mīror ("wonder at").

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Examples

Comments

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  • bewunderung

    to admire a beautiful picture

    to admire onself in a mirror

    May 14, 2009

  • to have a high opinion on somthing

    May 14, 2009

  • to respect of a person or thing

    May 14, 2009

  • somebody has done something very good. so I admire him

    May 14, 2009

  • somebody has tagspammed this page. so i dont admire him.

    May 14, 2009

  • That was erich13; apparently he couldn't work out how to remove the tags again, and John may get around to doing it someday.

    May 14, 2009

  • be pleased by somebody or something

    May 14, 2009

  • I admire my child.

    May 14, 2009

  • respect/agree with/praise for other people

    May 14, 2009

  • I admire anyone who has destroyed their television for their good sense.

    May 14, 2009

  • *to respect someone or something what they have done

    He's always kind to other people, so I admire him.

    *to look at something and think it is attractive or

    impressive.

    I admire beautiful flowers.

    *praise/respect/appreciate

    May 14, 2009

  • Have we been invaded by a junior English class?

    May 14, 2009

  • Judging by the usernames, I suspect English is not their first language.

    May 14, 2009

  • @People: "Then join the discussion—-Wordies are friendly!"

    May 14, 2009

  • It's like a crazy Wordie acid trip.

    May 15, 2009

  • Is it me, or is the tag cloud growing?

    May 15, 2009

  • Has someone been feeding it blood...?

    May 15, 2009

  • Wow... I've been out for a while. What the hell is going on??

    *runs off to porch with book and wine in hand*

    May 16, 2009