Definition of ADULATE

Examples of adulation in a Sentence

The rugby player enjoyed the adulation of his fans. a writer who inspires adulation in her readers

Recent Examples on the Web When he’s done, another muscled man leans over the fence for a selfie, and then another and another, a chain reaction of adulation lining his way. — Tessa Love, Outside Online, "Greg Glassman’s Easy Health Care Fix: More CrossFit," 16 Jan. 2020 The voice of grateful freedom is a stranger to the language of adulation. — Maysoon Khan, BostonGlobe.com, "Wisdom from July Fourths past," 3 July 2019 People who ignore the no-gift wish should not be rewarded with public adulation, which will no doubt make others feel bad. — Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, "The joy of a no-gift Christmas. Believe people when they say not to give a present.," 14 Dec. 2019 The president traveled to Battle Creek, Mich., to bask in the adulation of his adoring fan base. — Washington Post, "The impeachment vote felt like a funeral. But what died?," 19 Dec. 2019 But Earhart was determined to earn her adulation and prove—to men and women—that women could accomplish what men could. — Rachel Hartigan Shea, National Geographic, "Why does Amelia Earhart still fascinate us?," 17 Oct. 2019 In the century following his death, African-American performers would change the whole landscape of global music, some of them rising to the highest peaks of fame and adulation. — Ted Gioia, Smithsonian, "The Tragic Story of America’s First Black Music Star," 18 Oct. 2019 But rather than merely soak in the adulation, the former San Francisco 49ers receiver is taking an active part in contextualizing some of the NFL's seminal moments. — Michael Middlehurst-schwartz, USA TODAY, "Jerry Rice: Running back Jim Brown is the greatest player in NFL history," 4 Oct. 2019 For Western celebrities, particularly those on the wane and with pretensions to freethinking, Russia can offer fresh adulation and fat paychecks for their pinch of stardust. — James Marson, WSJ, "An American Heavyweight Infiltrates Russian Politics—and the Russians Are All for It," 30 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adulation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for adulation

Middle English adulacioun "insincere praise, flattery," borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin adūlātiōn-, adūlātiō, from adūlārī "to fawn upon (of dogs), praise insincerely" (of uncertain origin) + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action

Note: On the presumption that it is a denominal verb, Latin adūlārī has been compared with Sanskrit vāla-, vāra- "hair of a horse's tail, horsehair," Lithuanian valaĩ "horse's tail," though this is difficult both semantically and phonetically. More recently, the base of Latin avidus "greedy, eager" has been proposed as a source (see avid), via a prefixed *ad-awido-, syncopated to *ad-audo-, then with the second d dissimilated to l, yielding *adūlo-, "eagerly seeking something, flattering."

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