[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. Of a person, his actions, utterances, etc.: That flatters or tries to please by praise, generally insincere; adulatory.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, I. xv. The foole whiche herd the flaterynge wordes of the foxe beganne to open his bylle for to synge.
1550. Crowley, Epigr., 837.
| Wherefore I aduertise | |
| al men to be ware | |
| Of all flatterynge frendis, | |
| that bring men to care. |
1600. Shaks., As You Like It, IV. i. 188. That flattering tongue of yours wonne me.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 115. If Stilicho had not possessed the external advantages of strength and stature, the most flattering bard, in the presence of so many thousand spectators, would have hesitated to affirm, that he surpassed the measure of the demi-gods of antiquity.
† b. Coaxing, wheedling. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Friar’s Prol., 29.
| I schal him telle which a gret honour | |
| Is to ben a fals flateryng lymytour. |
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 269.
| Thy flatt’ring Method on the Youth pursue: | |
| Join’d with his School-Fellows by two and two. |
2. Suggesting pleasurable (usually, delusive) anticipations or beliefs; pleasing to the imagination.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 174.
| I shall, quod he, deceive and lie | |
| With flaterende prophecie | |
| In suche mouthes, as he leveth. |
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 57. Flee all ye false flateryng promesses of ye worlde.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 44. Lord. Euen as a flatt’ring dreame, or worthles fancie.
1717. Pope, Epist. to Jervas, 23.
| What flatt’ring scenes our wand’ring fancy wrought, | |
| Rome’s pompous glories rising to our thought! |
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 305. He had consulted by letter all the most eminent physicians of Europe; and, as he was apprehensive that they might return flattering answers if they knew who he was, he had written under feigned names.
1871. R. Hurley, Let., in Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining (1872), 203. I have assayed since that time about $10,000 from quartz, mostly obtained by prospecting merely on the different ledges. The prospects at this camp are very flattering.
b. Of the weather, the stars, etc.: Promising, (delusively) encouraging hope. Now rare.
1633. T. Stafford, Pacata Hibernia, II. xxx. 278. Don Iuan being at Kinsale, hourely expecting a wind to bee gone, and finding a flattering gale went aboard.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 413. Such flattering weather is commonly the fore-runner of a Tempest.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 27 Oct. It has been a terrible rainy day, but so flattering in the morning, that I would needs go out in my new hat.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Threnody, Wks. (Bohn), I. 490.
| For flattering planets seemed to say | |
| This child should ills of ages stay, | |
| By wondrous tongue, and guided pen, | |
| Bring the flown Muses back to men. |
3. Gratifying to self-esteem; highly complimentary.
1757. Burke, Abridgm. Eng. Hist., Wks. 1842, II. 593. These opinions are flattering to national vanity and professional narrowness.
1820. Lamb, Final Mem., viii. To Mr. Rogers, 277. It is not the flatteringest compliment in a letter to an author to say, you have not read his book yet.
1831. Sir J. Sinclair, Corr., II. 273. On resolving to visit Russia, I was particularly anxious to form an acquaintance with him, and was highly gratified with the very flattering terms in which he expressed himself on that occasion.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxvi. The dark beauty of the supposed little girl drew many flattering comments from the passengers.
† 4. Caressing, handling lightly. Cf. FLATTER v.1 1 b. Obs.
1650. Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, II. vi. 150–1. Their [Baal’s priests’] flattering hands rather acting and doing, did theatrically in superstitious formalities let out some drops of wild bloud in the surface of their flesh.
5. That represents too favorably; said esp. of a picture or the like.
159S. Shaks., John, II. i. 503.
| Till now, infixed I beheld my selfe, | |
| Drawne in the flattering table of her eie. |
1718. Prior, Alma, III. 23.
| But by the flatt’ring Glass of Nature, | |
| Viewing themselves in Cake-bread’s Feature. |
1774. Goldsm., Retal., 61.
| Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts, | |
| The Terence of England, the mender of hearts; | |
| A flattering painter, who made it his care | |
| To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are. |
6. quasi-adv. = FLATTERINGLY adv.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 141.
| Rom. O blessed blessed night, I am afear’d | |
| Being in night, all this is but a dreame, | |
| Too flattering sweet to be substantiall. |
Hence Flatteringness, the quality of being flattering.
1894. Miss Broughton, A Beginner, in Temple Bar Mag., CI. Feb., 195. She gently tempers its flatteringness by the remark—‘I was told that we were to go in higgledy-piggledy.’
