Library / English Dictionary

GRATIFY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: gratified   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Yield (to); give satisfaction to

Synonyms:

gratify; indulge; pander

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "gratify" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gratify"):

humor; humour (put into a good mood)

spree (engage without restraint in an activity and indulge, as when shopping)

sow one's oats; sow one's wild oats (live promiscuously and self-indulgently)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam cannot gratify Sue

Derivation:

gratification (the act or an instance of satisfying)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make happy or satisfied

Synonyms:

gratify; satisfy

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gratify"):

delight; please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

please (give satisfaction)

content (make content)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to gratify Sue

Derivation:

gratification (the act or an instance of satisfying)

gratification (state of being gratified or satisfied)

Credits

 Context examples: 

As I say, the sight gratified me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Of so little weight are the greatest services to princes, when put into the balance with a refusal to gratify their passions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Mrs. Jennings directly gave her the gratifying assurance that she certainly would NOT, and Miss Steele was made completely happy.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Here was a face with flashing eyes and distorted features, a face convulsed with hatred and with the mad joy of gratified revenge.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“My opinion!” she cried, shrinking from such a compliment, highly as it gratified her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A mist dispersed; I saw my life to be forfeit; and fled from the scene of these excesses, at once glorying and trembling, my lust of evil gratified and stimulated, my love of life screwed to the topmost peg.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This exploit was particularly gratifying to the three men; for they stood in need of the outfit which it furnished, and were enabled to make a long-desired trip into the virgin East, where miners had not yet appeared.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Which was very gratifying to him until he tried to collect. Something had gone wrong in the County Committee, and, though a rich banker and a state senator were members of it, the money was not forthcoming.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Oh, I will go by all means," I answered: and I was glad of the unexpected opportunity to gratify my much-excited curiosity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Much gratified, Jo rushed back to tell the good news, and Amy looked both touched and surprised by the report of May's word and manner.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)