blandishment

plural blandishments

1. countableOften in the plural form blandishments: a flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade.

   Pat found subject and scene of his wooing unaltered, but all his specious blandishments could not induce the matured matron of 'Gi' Away Nothin' 'All' to join fortunes, though his perseverance would have delighted Bruce's spider.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 187

   2 more examples

   Thus Her with Indignation frowning, ſtern, / With Tears, and Blandiſhments Æneas ſooth’d : / She bends here Eyes averſe upon the Ground ; / And by his Speech begun is mov’d no more, / Than a hard Flint, or fix’d Marpeſian Rock.

   1755, “Æneis”, in Joseph Trapp, transl., The Works of Virgil, volume II, book 6, pages 376–377, lines 600–604

   She looked up as she heard his footsteps, and the gracious smile which her lips put on, was an invitation to make himself happy in a seat beside her. But he resisted the blandishment, and lifting his hat as he passed, with a smile in return, he soon disappeared from her presence, and joined the two who awaited him.

   1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter V, page 66

   Synonyms: cajolery, carny, flattery, incense, adulation, ass-kissing, ass-licking, gloze

2. countableSomething alluring or attractive.

   We need intellectual leaders who are prepared to resist the blandishments of power and influence and who are willing to work for an ideal, however small may be the prospects of its early realization.

   1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 432

3. figurativelyuncountableAllurement, attraction.