Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Insinuating; serving to render acceptable or to ingratiate one with another.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective pleasingly persuasive or intended to persuade.
  • adjective calculated to please or gain favor; same as ingratiating, 2.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective pleasingly persuasive or intended to persuade
  • adjective calculated to please or gain favor

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Lord Decimus, though one of the greatest of the earth, was not remarkable for ingratiatory manners, and Ferdinand had coached him up to the point of noticing all the fellows he might find there, and saying he was glad to see them.

    Little Dorrit 2007

  • Cowperwood, disappointed by the outcome of his various ingratiatory efforts, decided to fall back on his old reliable method of bribery.

    The Titan 2004

  • He spoke with a timid gentleness of tone, an ingratiatory smile, and an anxious courtesy of manner, all distressingly suggestive of his being accustomed to receive rough answers in exchange for his own politeness from the persons whom he habitually addressed.

    Armadale 2003

  • “Something new, I should think, to you, sir, in a sailing match on fresh water?” he said, in his most ingratiatory manner.

    Armadale 2003

  • Near to him, employing all the ingratiatory insinuating arts she knew, and so absorbed in Scraper that she forgot even to direct the procession, was Lil.

    Schwartz: A History From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray David Christie Murray

  • Cowperwood, disappointed by the outcome of his various ingratiatory efforts, decided to fall back on his old reliable method of bribery.

    The Titan Theodore Dreiser 1908

  • Fuzzy wriggled himself into an ingratiatory attitude and essayed the idiotic smile and blattering small talk that is supposed to charm the budding intellect of the young.

    Strictly business: more stories of the four million O. Henry 1886

  • If you think of it, you will find one of the robin's very chief ingratiatory faculties is his dainty and delicate movement, -- his footing it featly here and there.

    Love's Meinie Three Lectures on Greek and English Birds John Ruskin 1859

  • He spoke with a timid gentleness of tone, an ingratiatory smile, and an anxious courtesy of manner, all distressingly suggestive of his being accustomed to receive rough answers in exchange for his own politeness from the persons whom he habitually addressed.

    Armadale Wilkie Collins 1856

  • "Something new, I should think, to you, sir, in a sailing match on fresh water?" he said, in his most ingratiatory manner.

    Armadale Wilkie Collins 1856

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