Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To express one's joy or good wishes to (someone) regarding that person's achievement or good fortune.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To address with expressions of sympathetic pleasure; compliment or felicitate upon an event deemed happy; wish joy to: with on or upon before the subject of congratulation: as, to
congratulate a man on the birth of a son; to congratulate the nation on the restoration of peace. - To welcome; hail with expressions of pleasure; salute.
- To express or feel sympathetic gratification: followed by with or, formerly, to.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb rare To express of feel sympathetic joy.
- transitive verb To address with expressions of sympathetic pleasure on account of some happy event affecting the person addressed; to wish joy to.
- transitive verb to rejoice; to feel satisfaction; to consider one's self happy or fortunate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb to
express one’ssympathetic pleasure orjoy to the person(s) it isfelt for
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb be proud of
- verb say something to someone that expresses praise
- verb pride or congratulate (oneself) for an achievement
- verb express congratulations
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We once again congratulate all of the candidates for their leadership and dedication to providing this country with a New Direction.
The Democratic Leaders Set a Deadline - Swampland - TIME.com 2008
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I think at least this panel should acknowledge that you heard the word congratulate about two minutes after somebody on this panel said she didn't use the word congratulate.
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Sadat and I have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, let me from this rostrum again congratulate him - as I did in a direct conversation between Jerusalem and Cairo a few weeks ago on the morrow of the announcement.
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In conclusion let me again congratulate you on the wonderful work you have done over there, and to say how happy I am to have had the privilege of addressing you.
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I once again congratulate you, my dear, on this triumph of tenderness: you see love, like virtue, is not only its own reward, but sometimes intitles us to other rewards too.
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Well, "congratulate" might be less the word than "breathe creepily into the phone for a long period of time, and then murmur something about death panels," but I think he got what I was aiming for.
Obama's post-election speech, the draft version Alexandra Petri 2010
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Why not tell them that Lotta was pregnant and her father, Renso, was on his way over to "congratulate" the culprit.
And the discussion goes on... nathreee 2009
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Prosecution lawyer John B. Hogan read the entire letter, including Hoot's sentimental closing, "Honeybabies, I must lay off for today, hope I dream of you tonight as I think of you all day," into the court record in order to establish the date on which Hoot claimed to have heard Toguri "congratulate" the commander of a naval bomber squadron "on his safe landing" in the Gilbert Islands.
Miss Yourlovin: GIs, Gender, and Domesticity during World War II 2008
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It's like the decorator had NO idea how to spell "congratulate," so when he got halfway through and figured out he was doomed, he sorta... mumbled his way through, hoping nobody would notice. *takes deep breath* Whoo.
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I laid on the living room floor, face down and crampy for the first time in my life, and tried very hard to disappear when my dad came out to "congratulate" me.
Boys to Men Jessica 2006
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