adulation
(ˌædjuːˈleɪʃən)
Forms: 4 adulacioun, adulacion, adulation.
[a. OFr. adulacion, ad. L. adūlātiōn-em, n. of action f. adūlā-ri: see adulate.]
Servile flattery or homage; exaggerated and hypocritical praise to which the bestower consciously stoops.
| c 1380 Chaucer Bal. Good Counsail (R.) Men woll..call faire speache adulacion. 1429 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 145 Eschew flatery and adulacioun. 1538 Bale Thre Lawes 964 By fayned flatterye, and by coloured adulacyon. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) 1 Thess. ii. 5 For neither haue we been at any time in the word of adulation, as you know. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 271 Thinks thou the fierie Feuer will goe out With Titles blowne from Adulation? 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. iii. 18 Adulation ever follows the ambitious, for such alone receive pleasure from flattery. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Brkf. Table xii. 115, I have two letters on file; one is a pattern of adulation, the other of impertinence. |