gratulate

Verb

gratulate (third-person singular simple present gratulates, present participle gratulating, simple past and past participle gratulated)

1. (archaic) To express joy at (an event or situation).
   • To gratify the good Andronicus, / And gratulate his safe return to Rome, / The people will accept whom he admits.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
   • [H]is friends and neareſt companions, / Did gratulate his ſafetie with kinde words, […]1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature D2, verso
2. (archaic) To greet, welcome, salute.
   • Queen Elizabeth. […] Whither away? / Lady Anne. No farther than the Tower; and, as I guess, / Upon the like devotion as yourselves, / To gratulate the gentle princes there.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
   • “Regard not that, my brother,” answered Magdalen Græme; “the first successors of Saint Peter himself, were elected not in sunshine but in tempests—not in the halls of the Vatican, but in the subterranean vaults and dungeons of Heathen Rome—they were not gratulated with shouts and salvos of...1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and...

Adjective

IPA/ˈɡɹætjʊlət/

gratulate (comparative more gratulate, superlative most gratulate)

1. (obsolete) Worthy of gratulation.
   • Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:
     There’s more behind that is more gratulate.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...