Word.ws English Dictionary

blandishment

Syllables: bland·ish·ment/ˈblæn.dɪʃ.m(ə)nt/US/ˈblæn.dɪʃ.mənt/

blandishment noun: often in the plural form blandishments: a flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade.

Noun

blandishment (plural blandishments)

  1. (countable) Often in the plural form blandishments: a flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade.
    • Thus Her with Indignation frowning, ſtern, / With Tears, and Blandiſhments Æneas ſooth’d : / She bends here Eyes averſe upon the Ground ; / And by his Speech begun is mov’d no more, / Than a hard Flint, or fix’d Marpeſian Rock.1755, “Æneis”, in Joseph Trapp, transl., The Works of Virgil, volume II, book 6, pages 376–377, lines 600–604
    • She looked up as she heard his footsteps, and the gracious smile which her lips put on, was an invitation to make himself happy in a seat beside her. But he resisted the blandishment, and lifting his hat as he passed, with a smile in return, he soon disappeared from her presence, and joined the two...1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter V, page 66
  2. (countable) Something alluring or attractive.
    • We need intellectual leaders who are prepared to resist the blandishments of power and influence and who are willing to work for an ideal, however small may be the prospects of its early realization.1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 432
  3. (figuratively, uncountable) Allurement, attraction.

blandishment meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

blandishment in Tamil

கொஞ்சுதல், பசப்புநயம், இன்னயம்

blandishment in Marathi

blandishment, coquetry
हाव hāv

blandishment in Urdu

flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade
ادا adā

blandishment in Bengali

তোষামোদ, মিষ্ট কথা, প্রলুব্ধ করার চেষ্টা
More languagesFewer languages
blandishment in Malayalam
അനുനയം, മുഖസ്തുതി, മധുരവചനം

Synonyms of blandishment

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of blandishment

Forms of blandishment

pluralblandishments

Origin of blandishment

From blandish (“to persuade someone by using flattery, to cajole; to praise someone dishonestly, to flatter or butter up”) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs, having the sense of ‘the action or result of what is denoted by the verbs’). Blandish is derived from Middle English blaundishen (“to flatter; to fawn; to be enticing or persuasive; to be favourable; of the sea: to become calm”) [and other forms] (whence blaundice (“flattery, blandishment; caresses, dalliance; allurement, attractiveness; deceitfulness, deception”) [and other forms]), from Middle English blaundishen, from blandiss-, the extended stem of Middle French blandir + Middle English -ishen (suffix forming verbs). Blandir is derived from Latin blandīrī, the present active infinitive of blandior (“to fawn, flatter; to delude”), from blandus (“fawning, flattering, smooth, suave; persuasive; alluring, enticing, seductive; agreeable, pleasant”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“erroneous, false; bad, evil”)) + -iō (suffix forming causative verbs from adjectives).

Questions about blandishment

What does blandishment mean?
Blandishment means often in the plural form blandishments: a flattering speech or action designed to influence or persuade.
What is blandishment in Tamil?
Blandishment in Tamil is கொஞ்சுதல், பசப்புநயம், இன்னயம். See Blandishment meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is blandishment?
Blandishment is a noun.
How do you pronounce blandishment?
Blandishment is pronounced /ˈblæn.dɪʃ.m(ə)nt/ (UK).
What is the plural of blandishment?
The plural of blandishment is blandishments.

Words near blandishment in the dictionary

  1. blandisher
  2. blandishers
  3. blandishes
  4. blandishing
  5. blandishingly
  6. blandishment
  7. blandishments
  8. blandly
  9. blandmobile
  10. blandmobiles
  11. blandness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blandishment (page history and authors); blandishment (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); हाव (Marathi) (page history and authors); blandishment (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blandishment (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-blandishment.wav.

Cite this entry: “blandishment.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blandishment. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.