flatter

UK/ˈflætə/US/ˈflætɚ/

verbC13 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,209 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: flatters, flattered, flattering, flattery

To flatter someone is to praise them more than you mean it, usually because you want something. The praise is real enough to enjoy and false enough to leave a taste.

There is a second, kinder sense with no dishonesty in it: a coat that flatters you is one that makes you look better. And there is the phrase I am flattered, which just means pleased to be asked. Watch the reflexive one too — to flatter yourself is to believe something about yourself that nobody else does.

Definitions of flatter

1verbflatterTo praise somebody too much, usually to get something from them.C1~41%
“He flattered the manager all week and got the corner desk.”
synonyms: butter up, compliment
2verblookTo make somebody look better than usual.C1~27%
“That colour flatters you.”
3verbpleaseTo please somebody by choosing or praising them.C1~32%
“I was flattered to be asked at all.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 70 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense (48 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

FLAT-ter → laid on FLAT

Someone spreads compliments over you like butter on toast — thick, flat, and far too much of it.

hooks ontoflat

Phrases it lives in

flatter yourself — believe something pleasing about yourself that is not true
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — copying someone is a kind of praise

Where it comes from

To flatter is to flutter. Middle English flateren meant to flutter or float as much as to fawn over somebody, and Old Norse flaðra meant to fawn: flattery is hovering about a person.

Proto-Indo-European
*pleth₂-
Middle English
flat
English
flat
English, today
flatter

From flat + er. Compare Icelandic flatari (“flatter, more flat”). flat comes from Middle English flat. From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic flataz, from Proto-Indo-European pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to stq flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς, Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (“extension”). a doublet of plat and pleyt. The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs, Ways of Speaking

Practise this word

flatter in the wild

The outhaul is loosened to provide a fuller camber or tightened to give the sail foot a flatter camber.
Outhaul
I think I'll wear the green dress because it flatters my legs.
Flattery
A quicker delivery with a lower trajectory is sometimes described as "flat" or "flatter".
Flight (cricket)
The west of Northumberland contains part of the Cheviot Hills and North Pennines, while to the east the land becomes flatter before reaching the coast.
Northumberland
The city is set in the rolling parkland of central Alberta, between the Rocky Mountains foothills to the west and the flatter Alberta prairie to the east.
Lacombe, Alberta

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of flatter

1verbflatterTo praise somebody too much, usually to get something from them.C1~41%

“He flattered the manager all week and got the corner desk.”

synonyms: butter up, compliment

2verblookTo make somebody look better than usual.C1~27%

“That colour flatters you.”

3verbpleaseTo please somebody by choosing or praising them.C1~32%

“I was flattered to be asked at all.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 70 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense (48 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.