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Everyone must accept that we will age and age is not always flattering.
Amitabh Bachchan

Meaning of "flattering" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF FLATTERING

flattering  [ˈflætərɪŋ] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF FLATTERING

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Flattering is an adjective.
The adjective is the word that accompanies the noun to determine or qualify it.

WHAT DOES FLATTERING MEAN IN ENGLISH?

flattering

Flattery

Flattery is the act of giving excessive compliments, generally for the purpose of ingratiating oneself with the subject. Historically, flattery has been used as a standard form of discourse when addressing a king or queen. In the Renaissance, it was a common practice among writers to flatter the reigning monarch, as Edmund Spenser flattered Queen Elizabeth I in The Faerie Queene, William Shakespeare flattered King James I in Macbeth and Niccolò Machiavelli flattered Lorenzo II de' Medici, ruler of Florence and Duke of Urbino, in The Prince. Flattery is also used in pick-up lines when attempting to initiate romantic courtship. Most associations with flattery, however, are negative. Negative descriptions of flattery range at least as far back in history as The Bible. In the Divine Comedy, Dante depicts flatterers wading in human excrement, stating that their words were the equivalent of excrement, in the 8th Circle of Hell. An insincere flatterer is a stock character in many literary works. Examples include Wormtongue from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Goneril and Regan from King Lear, and Iago from Othello.

Definition of flattering in the English dictionary

The first definition of flattering in the dictionary is insincerely praising. Other definition of flattering is gratifying to the ego; pleasing. Flattering is also that shows someone or something to advantage.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH FLATTERING


baby-battering
ˈbeɪbɪˌbætərɪŋ
battering
ˈbætərɪŋ
catering
ˈkeɪtərɪŋ
centering
ˈsɛntərɪŋ
chattering
ˈtʃætərɪŋ
factoring
ˈfæktərɪŋ
fostering
ˈfɒstərɪŋ
glittering
ˈɡlɪtərɪŋ
Kettering
ˈkɛtərɪŋ
lettering
ˈlɛtərɪŋ
mentoring
ˈmɛntərɪŋ
monitoring
ˈmɒnɪtərɪŋ
motoring
ˈməʊtərɪŋ
plastering
ˈplɑːstərɪŋ
scattering
ˈskætərɪŋ
shattering
ˈʃætərɪŋ
smattering
ˈsmætərɪŋ
tutoring
ˈtjuːtərɪŋ
unflattering
ʌnˈflætərɪŋ
watering
ˈwɔːtərɪŋ

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE FLATTERING

flatstick
flatted
flatten
flattener
flatter
flatterable
flattered
flatterer
flatteries
flatteringly
flatterous
flatterously
flattery
flattest
flattie
flatties
flatting
flattish
flattop
flatty

WORDS THAT END LIKE FLATTERING

bring
civil engineering
considering
covering
electrical engineering
empowering
engineering
fingering
flowering
gathering
hovering
lowering
mechanical engineering
offering
ordering
recovering
rendering
steering
suffering
wandering
wondering

Synonyms and antonyms of flattering in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

SYNONYMS OF «FLATTERING»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «flattering» and belong to the same grammatical category.
synonyms of flattering

Translation of «flattering» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF FLATTERING

Find out the translation of flattering to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of flattering from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «flattering» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

使更漂亮的
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

halagador
570 millions of speakers

English

flattering
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

चापलूसी
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

الاغراء
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

лестно
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

lisonjeiro
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

চাটুকার
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

flatteur
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Memuji
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

schmeichelhaft
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

実物以上に見える
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

돋보이게 하는
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Flattering
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

sự nịnh hót
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

புகழ்ச்சி
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

खुशामत
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

yaltaklanan
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

che dona
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

pochlebne
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

утішно
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

măgulitor
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

κολακευτικό
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

vleiende
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

smickrande
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

smigrende
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of flattering

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «FLATTERING»

The term «flattering» is very widely used and occupies the 22.608 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Very widely used
90
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «flattering» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of flattering
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «flattering».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «FLATTERING» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «flattering» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «flattering» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about flattering

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «FLATTERING»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word flattering.
1
Pamela Anderson
Confining marine animals to tanks and separating them from their families and their natural surroundings, just so people can watch them swim in endless circles, teaches us far more about humans than it does about animals - and the lesson is not a flattering one.
2
Jonas Armstrong
It's flattering that there are lots of Internet fan sites about me. I'm a bit of a technophobe and I don't even own a laptop, but it's probably a good thing I'm not logged on, checking up on what everyone is saying about me.
3
Amitabh Bachchan
Everyone must accept that we will age and age is not always flattering.
4
Augusten Burroughs
I was on the cover of a lot of newspapers. I was on the cover of USA Today for every single day for a month. I was on the masthead, so I tend to get recognized a lot, and in weird places. It's always flattering, and it's always odd. It's always at the worst possible time.
5
John Carpenter
One could make money and get a career going with a low-budget horror film about killers attacking on holidays. It is always flattering to have somebody copy you.
6
John Cena
I'm the one person who wears the words 'hustle, loyalty, respect' on my T-shirts and merchandise. My audience is children. It's very flattering to see a kid wear your T-shirt; it's even more flattering to have a dad come up to you and say, 'I watch you with my kid. Keep doing what you're doing. You're a role model for my son.'
7
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
8
James F. Cooper
They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another;' a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory.
9
Paula Creamer
I think I do my own thing. I start my own trends. I see a lot of girls doing what I've been doing. Pink. Nobody wore pink, and now everybody wears it. It's flattering.
10
Kenny Dalglish
The scoreline is a bit flattering really.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «FLATTERING»

Discover the use of flattering in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to flattering and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
The Flattering Word and Other One Act Plays
1930. The great American comic dramatist George Kelly's The Flattering Word is a comic pastiche about an actor who charms a prejudiced Midwestern parson out of his disapproval of the theater.
George Kelly, 2010
2
The Luminous Portrait: Capture the Beauty of Natural Light ...
A reference for wedding and portrait photographers as well as amateur shutterbugs of any experience level demonstrates how to maximize natural lighting for the best effects, drawing on the expertise of an award-winning wedding photographer ...
Elizabeth Messina, 2012
3
Flattering the Passions: Or, the Bomb and Britain's Bid for ...
Exploring the effectiveness of British defence strategies, the authors argue that the massive expenditure on British nuclear arms actually weakens the country by diverting resources from more necessary social programmes.
Hugh Beach, Nadine Gurr, 1999
4
Knit, Swirl!: Uniquely Flattering One Piece, One Seam Swirl ...
Sandra McIver presents 18 designs based on the innovative one piece, one seam circular constructions she calls a swirl.
Sandra McIver, 2011
5
Flattering Alliances: Scandinavia, Diplomacy and the ...
Taking a fresh look at the history of diplomacy, this book looks at the fight for hegemony between France and Austria after the Peace of Westphalia 1648, showing how their clashes dragged the Scandinavian kingdoms into European top-level ...
Peter Lindstrom, Svante Norrhem, 2013
6
Gillie and the flattering fox
A vain cock is rescued once from the clutches of a flattering and hungry fox, but can he be saved from the same mistake a second time?
Lisl Weil, 1978
7
The Works of William Shakespeare
If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand : \ C^^*^ My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne, And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts I dreamt my lady ...
William Shakespeare, J. Ellis Burdick, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, 1909
8
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
2. flattering truth of I flattering e e of 1 . MAL. flattery of oPe. attering ruth of WARB. flattering eye ofl' JACKSoN). flattering soother SING. ). flattering death of CoLL. MS ). 2CoLL. flattering signs of (BAILEY). flattering 'Ay' of or flattering Eve of or ...
William Shakespeare, Charlotte Endymion Porter, Helen Archibald D. Clarke, 1907
9
Christ-Centered Self-Esteem: Seeing Ourselves Through God's Eyes
Jesus said, "I do not accept praise from men" (John 5:41). This does not mean that Jesus accepted criticism from men either. Jesus had to learn how to handle criticism. Most people seem to think that compliments are just flattering remarks.
Charles R. Gerber, 2001
10
Figure Flattering Plus-Size Fashions
Today's fashions are designed to flatter a full-size woman in this wonderful guide to creating plus-size clothes and accessories. Patterns for tunics, vests, cardigans, wraps, a hat, and fingerless gloves are included in this great book.
Jenny King, 2014

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «FLATTERING»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term flattering is used in the context of the following news items.
1
John Cena is the world's biggest Make-A-Wish superstar
... time into Make-A-Wish because, “When I hear that this child wants to hang out with [me] for the day, I think that's the most flattering thing that I ... «New York Post, Jul 15»
2
North Aurora designer says new bikini a cut above
But the swimsuits we wear here, she continued, are not as flattering as ... In addition to that V-shape which produces a more flattering lift, the ... «Chicago Tribune, Jul 15»
3
Finding flattering shorts
Do you have a hard time finding flattering shorts? Jo-Anne Smith from All About You VT shares tips on finding shorts that will help you look and ... «WCAX, Jul 15»
4
Call that a mugshot? Aussie model/fugitive asks rozzers for more …
Call that a mugshot? Aussie model/fugitive asks rozzers for more flattering pic. You're so vain, you probably think Facebook is about you. «The Register, Jul 15»
5
Flattering To Be Linked With Prestigious Clubs – Faouzi Ghoulam …
Napoli full-back Faouzi Ghoulam is flattered to be linked with clubs such as Arsenal and Real Madrid, but insists he is not spending too much ... «Inside Futbol, Jul 15»
6
Jenelle Evans: Sex Tape Offer "Flattering" ... But Against My Morals!
Jenelle Evans is speaking out about the sex tape offer she received, saying she is so flattered but not interested ... for reasons that may shock ... «The Hollywood Gossip, Jul 15»
7
How to Photograph a Person from Below and Create a Flattering
One of the things that every portrait photographer is taught when starting out is that you should never photograph a person from below. For the ... «The Phoblographer, Jul 15»
8
Beyoncé Shows the Secret to Making Stripes Figure Flattering
Taking elements from a classic menswear shirt, the wrap dress remixes the angles on horizontal stripes and makes them ultra figure flattering. «Vogue.com, Jul 15»
9
10 Flattering Outfits For A Movie Date
A woman gets extremely excited when she is asked for a movie date for obvious reasons! Not only do you get a chance to spend quality time ... «BoldSky, Jul 15»
10
Women in industry a flattering addition to those on the land
Australian workplaces have changed enormously over the last 30-odd years; as women take their place in industries right across the spectrum. «ABC Online, Jun 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Flattering [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/flattering>. Apr 2024 ».
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