adulator
(ˈædjʊˌleɪtə(r))
[a. L. adūlātor n. of agent, f. adūlā-ri: see adulate, cf. Fr. adulateur.]
One who offers praise consciously exaggerated or unmerited; a servile or hypocritical flatterer.
[Not in Cotgr. 1611, who defines Adulateur Fr. as A flatterer, cogger, smoother, soother, fawner, clawback. Not in Sherwood 1650.]
| 1696 Phillips, Adulator, a Flatterer, a fawning Fellow, a Claw-back. 1779 J. Sullivan in Sparks Corr. Am. Rev. (1853) II. 367 Could you have believed that those Adulators..would become your bitter enemies? 1835 I. Taylor Sp. Despotism vi. 259 Constantine..by his adulators styled Chief bishop of the Church. 1854 tr. Lamartine's Celebr. Charact. II. 40 Aristophanes, a vile adulator of the follies and superstitions cherished by vulgar ignorance. |