In short, from writing dramas to amuse a merry monarch and his courtiers, an office not without dignity, the Laureate sunk into a hired writer of adulatory odes; a change in which originated that prevalent contempt for the laurel which descended from the era of Tate to that of Southey.

Living in habits of intimacy with princes and cardinals, he never addressed them in adulatory language, but talked and acted like a nobleman of nature, whose inborn and superior greatness could be tested only by the ages.

I. TO HIS EXCELLENCY, THE HONOURABLE SIR ALEXANDER COCHRANE, K.B. VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE WHITE, LATE COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF HIS MAJESTY'S NAVAL FORCES ON THE LEEWARD ISLAND STATION, NOW GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE ISLAND OF GUADALOUPE, &C. &C. &C. Dear Sir, Unused to the adulatory language of dedications, I am well aware that any such mode of address would offend your delicacy.

This passage was the sole authority, we suspect, Prior had for a story which was nevertheless sufficiently true to figure in an adulatory dedication; and, indeed, Prior may have used the word "equivalent" loosely, and had Dorset's gift been more than a year's income, Dryden would hardly have called it a "present,"a phrase scarcely applicable to the grant of a pension.

Adj. flattering &c v.; adulatory; mealy-mouthed, honey-mouthed; honeyed; smooth, smooth-tongued; soapy, oily, unctuous, blandiloquent^, specious; fine-spoken, fair spoken; plausible, servile, sycophantic, fulsome; courtierly^, courtier-like.

His adversaries had long ago pronounced him, in all but name, "a king;" and his friends were accustomed to address him in language as adulatory as ever gratified the ears of the most absolute sovereign.

But perhaps you would say that his adulatory manner was originally adopted under strong promptings of self-interest, and that his absurdly over-acted deference to persons from whom he expects no patronage is the unreflecting persistence of habitjust as those who live with the deaf will shout to everybody else.

To censure all dedications as adulatory and servile, would discover rather envy than justice.

As no man is willing to believe that he suffers by his own fault, they imputed the preference which I had obtained to adulatory compliances, or malignant calumnies.

The press note, one should note, had been composed to ensure the inclusion of some adulatory phrases in the first paragraph.

Well along in the afternoon, when the Club parlor was less crowded with members, the atmosphere freer of smoke, and the ivory balls less noisy on the green cloth, don Andrés considered his game at an end, and took a chair in his disciple's circle, where as usual Rafael was sitting with the most parasitic and adulatory of his partisans.

He is beset with adulatory petitions, and propitiating gifts; the Noblesse who have escaped confinement form a sort of court about his person; and thrice happy is the owner of that habitation at which he condescends to reside.

He is beset with adulatory petitions, and propitiating gifts; the Noblesse who have escaped confinement form a sort of court about his person; and thrice happy is the owner of that habitation at which he condescends to reside.

Every art of praise was tried, and every source of adulatory fiction was exhausted.

Alas, beholding Yudhishthira a courtier sitting beside another and breathing adulatory speeches to the other, who can help being afflicted with grief?

Sainte-Beuve has constituted himself judge, reversing even his own adulatory articles, as they may be read in the earlier volumes of the "Causeries."