Definitions

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

  • noun Excessive flattery or admiration.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Servile flattery; excessive or unmerited praise; exaggerated compliment.
  • noun 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.

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

  • noun Servile flattery; praise in excess, or beyond what is merited.

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

  • noun Flattery; fulsome praise.

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

  • noun servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise

Etymologies

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

[Middle English adulacioun, from Old French, from Latin adūlātiō, adūlātiōn-, from adūlātus, past participle of adūlārī, to flatter.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French adulation, from Latin adulātio ("flattery").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word adulation.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Despite the adulation she received, something troubled her. Guilt overtook her and pushed her to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

    January 8, 2011

  • Adulation of Apple Fanboys. :D

    August 17, 2012