ingratiate
verb
William Attwood
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When you ingratiate yourself, you put yourself in someone’s good graces in order to gain their approval or favor. While the word ingratiate does not necessarily imply that your behavior is obsequious or otherwise improper, the word may be used disapprovingly by those who distrust your motives. The word entered English in the early 1600s from the combining of the Latin noun gratia, meaning “grace” or “favor,” with the English prefix in-. Gratia comes from the adjective gratus, meaning “pleasing, grateful.” Gratus has, over the centuries, ingratiated itself well with the English language as the ancestor of a whole host of words including gratuitous, congratulate, and grace.
Examples of ingratiate in a Sentence
Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 15 Apr. 2024
Zuckerberg and Chan have made attempts to ingratiate themselves with the locals, contributing significantly to charities, community support programs, and Covid-19 and disaster relief efforts, but, Wired reports, tension remains.
—Mackenzie Schmidt, Peoplemag, 15 Dec. 2023
That management style did not ingratiate himself with employees at Time Warner’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters.
—Chris Kornelis, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2024
Tranter is also working hard to ingratiate themself to the Academy, including the thankless task of hosting the Grammys pre-show.
—Vulture, 1 Feb. 2024
That forthright emotion is ingratiating, yet happily, these same skills also are evident in lighter material, such as a new song about her fervent desire that her ex be murdered by his new girlfriend.
—Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rolling Stone, 17 Mar. 2024
Zaheer was a serious under-the-radar threat, ingratiating himself with everyone while secretly masterminding several big votes post-merge.
—Ben Rosenstock, TIME, 26 Feb. 2024
The first episode kicks off with the couple’s latest plan, which is to flip houses and convert them into eco-friendly homes for the struggling residents of Española, New Mexico, all for their new reality show being overseen by an ingratiating producer (Safdie) with demons of his own.
—Anna Tingley, Variety, 10 Nov. 2023
The bird, without sauce, is an ingratiating bite, fragrant and slightly sweet with star anise, cinnamon, clove and cardamom.
—Tim Carman, Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ingratiate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near ingratiate
Cite this Entry
“Ingratiate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ingratiate. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.
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ingratiate
verb
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