ingratiate
/ɪnˈɡɹeɪ.ʃi.eɪt/
ingratiate verb: to bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please them; to insinuate oneself; to worm one's way in.
Verb
ingratiate (third-person singular simple present ingratiates, present participle ingratiating, simple past and past participle ingratiated)
- To bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please them; to insinuate oneself; to worm one's way in.
- [H]e considered this offering an homage to his merits, and an attempt on the part of the heiress to ingratiate herself into his priceless affections.1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Donne’s Exodus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 108
- [H]e would pat the children on the head when he saw them on the stairs, and ingratiate himself with them as far as he dared.1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 58, in The Way of All Flesh
- To recommend; to render easy or agreeable.
- What difficulty would it [the love of Christ] not ingratiate to us?c. 1650, Henry Hammond, "Sermon XIII" in Miscellaneous Theological Works of Henry Hammond, Volume 3 (1850 edition), p. 283 (Google preview)
- the Sense of this will mightily indear and ingratiate them to us1686, John Scott, The Christian Life […]
ingratiate meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Kannada and Arabic
ingratiate in Urdu
- چاپلوسی کرنا
ingratiate in Bengali
- অনুগ্রহভাজন হওয়া, খোশামোদ করে প্রিয় হওয়া
ingratiate in Kannada
- ಕೃಪಾಪಾತ್ರನಾಗು, ಅನುಗ್ರಹ ಸಂಪಾದಿಸು, ಒಲವು ಗಳಿಸು, ಮೆಚ್ಚಿಸು, ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳಿಸು
ingratiate in Arabic
- get someone's favor, especially through flattery
- تَمَلَّقَ tamallaqa
Examples of ingratiate in a sentence
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is trying to crawl out from under its rock and ingratiate itself as an "equal opportunity employer" and a friend of progressive movements.1991 August 17, Roanne Hindin, “FBI: Not A Fashion Statement”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 5, page 4:
- He ingratiated himself with the Kurdish bloc when he stood up to aggressive Turkish rhetoric about the Kurdish border in May.2007 July 9, Brian T. Bennett, “Why Maliki Is Still Around”, in Time, retrieved 26 May 2014:
Forms of ingratiate
| third-person singular present | ingratiates |
|---|---|
| present participle | ingratiating |
| past participle | ingratiated |
| past | ingratiated |
Origin of ingratiate
First attested in 1622. From Italian ingraziare or Medieval Latin *ingratiatus, from Latin in grātiam (“for the favor of”).
Words formed from ingratiate
Words that rhyme with ingratiate
Questions about ingratiate
- What does ingratiate mean?
- Ingratiate means to bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please them; to insinuate oneself; to worm one's way in.
- What is ingratiate in Urdu?
- Ingratiate in Urdu is چاپلوسی کرنا. See Ingratiate meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use ingratiate in a sentence?
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is trying to crawl out from under its rock and ingratiate itself as an "equal opportunity employer" and a friend of progressive movements.
- What part of speech is ingratiate?
- Ingratiate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce ingratiate?
- Ingratiate is pronounced /ɪnˈɡɹeɪ.ʃi.eɪt/.
- What is the past tense of ingratiate?
- The past tense of ingratiate is ingratiated.
Words near ingratiate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ingratiate (page history and authors); ingratiate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Ingratiate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ingratiate (Kannada 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: en-us-ingratiate.ogg, en-au-ingratiate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ingratiate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ingratiate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.