GRATIFY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Gratify

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/grˈætəfˌaɪ/ Listen

verb

Gratify v. t. (past & past part. gratified; pres. part. gratifying)

To please; to give pleasure to; to satisfy; to soothe; to indulge; as, to gratify the taste, the appetite, the senses, the desires, the mind, etc. "For who would die to gratify a foe?"

To requite; to recompense. (Obs.) "It remains... To gratify his noble service."

Synonyms: To indulge; humor please; delight; requite; recompense. To Gratify, Indulge, Humor. Gratify, is the generic term, and has reference simply to the pleasure communicated. To indulge a person implies that we concede something to his wishes or his weaknesses which he could not claim, and which had better, perhaps, be spared. To humor is to adapt ourselves to the varying moods, and, perhaps, caprices, of others. We gratify a child by showing him the sights of a large city; we indulge him in some extra expense on such an occasion; we humor him when he is tired and exacting.

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Etymology of 'Gratify'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gratify" Quotes from Famous Books

... Nancy, and his sturdy heart chafed in almost bitter protest. Again sweet memories played truant in the small attic chamber. "And little Nancy has musical aspirations," he thought. "With the life I have chosen I could never gratify her. It is absolutely hopeless for me,—I have nothing to offer her. I am old and staid, anyway," he said finally to his rebellious heart. "I have known the responsibilities of life too long, and Nancy is ...

— The Boy from Hollow Hut - A Story of the Kentucky Mountains • Isla May Mullins

... quick train, the green, flying landscape, with glimpses of the Sound and white sails, the hillsides and clear streams becoming rapidly steeper and dearer as we turned northward: all seemed to gratify him, and when he spoke at all it was approvingly. The hour and a half required to cover the sixty miles of distance seemed very short. As the train slowed down for the Redding ...

— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... the top of the mill garden; and you may be sure that he kept his ears open, and learned many new things about the outside world as he brought the omelette or the wine. Nay, he would often get into conversation with single guests, and by adroit questions and polite attention, not only gratify his own curiosity, but win the goodwill of the travellers. Many complimented the old couple on their serving-boy; and a professor was eager to take him away with him, and have him properly educated in the plain. The miller and his wife were mightily astonished and ...

— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson

... of a large family, Miss Bender was a woman of great wealth but of plain and old-fashioned tastes. Though amply able to gratify any extravagant wish, she preferred to live as her parents had lived before her, and she had in no sense kept pace with the ...

— Patty's Summer Days • Carolyn Wells

... of these two strangers seemed to have rendered ineffectual all the efforts she had put forth that day to gratify her husband; of what use was it that she had so carefully prepared the lessons he would not trouble himself to hear? or that she had spent hours of patient practice at the piano in learning the song she was given no opportunity to play ...

— Elsie's New Relations • Martha Finley

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