GRATIFY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Gratify

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/grˈætəfˌaɪ/ Listen

verb

Gratify v. t. (past & past part. gratified; pres. part. gratifying)

To please; to give pleasure to; to satisfy; to soothe; to indulge; as, to gratify the taste, the appetite, the senses, the desires, the mind, etc. "For who would die to gratify a foe?"

To requite; to recompense. (Obs.) "It remains... To gratify his noble service."

Synonyms: To indulge; humor please; delight; requite; recompense. To Gratify, Indulge, Humor. Gratify, is the generic term, and has reference simply to the pleasure communicated. To indulge a person implies that we concede something to his wishes or his weaknesses which he could not claim, and which had better, perhaps, be spared. To humor is to adapt ourselves to the varying moods, and, perhaps, caprices, of others. We gratify a child by showing him the sights of a large city; we indulge him in some extra expense on such an occasion; we humor him when he is tired and exacting.

See images of 'Gratify'

Etymology of 'Gratify'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Gratify" Quotes from Famous Books

... passers-by on the foot of some great tree, or rock, or the leaf cast from a passing canoe towards a promontory on the river, etc., although intrinsically valueless and useless to the Ombwiri nevertheless gratify him. It is a sort of bow or taking off one's hat to him. Some gifts, the Doctor says, are supposed to be ...

— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... that he had been surprised that Mignon had not made any attempt to find out the cause of the enmity of which the superior had spoken, and which it was so important to find out; but Mignon excused himself by saying that he had no right to put questions merely to gratify curiosity. The civil lieutenant was about to insist on the matter being investigated, when the lay sister in her turn went into a fit, thus extricating Mignon from his embarrassment. The magistrates approached the lay sister's ...

— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... real existences; the palpable beings of reason!—Beside what influence have I in the world, except over my friends and family? And shall I renounce this little influence, this only power of doing good, in order to gratify my own passions, by making myself the outcast of that family and of that world to whom it is my ambition to live an example?—My family and the world are prejudiced and unjust: I know it. But where is the remedy? Can we work miracles? Will their prejudices vanish at our bidding?—I have already ...

— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... passed; for it is impossible that anything should be universally tasted and approved by a multitude, though they are only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it some peculiar aptness to please and gratify the mind of man. Human nature is the same in all reasonable creatures; and whatever falls in with it will meet with admirers amongst readers of all qualities and conditions. Moliere, as we are told by Monsieur Boileau, ...

— Essays and Tales • Joseph Addison

... whole happiness depends upon this bargain with my lord; for it gives him the possession of three boroughs, and those, madam, are much dearer to him than the happiness of his children. I am sorry to say it, but, to gratify his political rage, he wou'd sacrifice every social tie, that is dear to friend ...

— The Man Of The World (1792) • Charles Macklin

More quotes...