flattery

plural flatteries

1. uncountableExcessive praise or approval, which is often insincere and sometimes contrived to win favour.

   Don't you know that some of his contributions here are pure flattery?

   3 more examples

   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   “All of a sudden, one day, everyone was taking 0.5 selfies,” she said. Wherever Gen Z gathers these days, a 0.5 selfie is almost bound to be taken, capturing the moment with random flattery — or comical lack thereof. The 0.5 selfies are showing up on Instagram, proliferating in group chats, becoming the talk of parties and often being snapped to chronicle the minutiae of daily life.

   2022 July 3, Kalley Huang, “The Rise of the 0.5 Selfie”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2025

   [US president Donald] Trump has developed a warm relationship with [NATO Secretary-General Mark] Rutte, who courted the president at last June’s NATO summit with effusive flattery and commitments to boosting European members’ “fair share” of alliance spending.

   2026 April 5, Howard LaFranchi, “Trump’s war in Iran puts new strain on alliances. Why this time it’s different.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Apr 2026

2. countableAn instance of excessive praise.

   But I pitty the flatteries, and ſelfe-applauſes of a careleſſe and impenitent heart: This jollity hath in it much danger, and vvithout ſome change, death.

   1651, Jos[eph] Hall, “Soliloq[uy] XI. False Joy.”, in Susurrium cum Deo. Soliloquies: Or, Holy Self-conferences of the Devout Soul, […], 2nd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Hunt, and are to be sold by George Lathum junior, […], →OCLC, page 37

plural Flatterys

1. A surname from Irish.