[a. L. adūlātor n. of agent, f. adūlā-ri: see ADULATE, cf. Fr. adulateur.] One who offers praise consciously exaggerated or unmerited; a servile or hypocritical flatterer.
[Not in Cotgr. 1611, who defines Adulateur Fr. as A flatterer, cogger, smoother, soother, fawner, clawback. Not in Sherwood, 1650.]
1696. Phillips, Adulator, a Flatterer, a fawning Fellow, a Claw-back.
1779. J. Sullivan, in Sparks, Corr. Am. Rev. (1853), II. 367. Could you have believed that those Adulators … would become your bitter enemies?
1835. I. Taylor, Sp. Despotism, vi. 259. Constantine … by his adulators styled Chief bishop of the Church.
1854. trans. Lamartine’s Celebr. Charact., II. 40. Aristophanes, a vile adulator of the follies and superstitions cherished by vulgar ignorance.
