flatter.
To compliment someone, often (but not necessarily) insincerely and sometimes to win favour.
Meaning & usage
To compliment someone, often (but not necessarily) insincerely and sometimes to win favour.
To enhance or gratify someone's vanity by praising them.
To portray someone to advantage.
Her portrait flatters her.
To encourage or cheer someone with (usually false) hope.
To cheer or please (with the idea that); congratulate oneself, especially when the perception is false.
Before the results came out, I flattered myself that I had done well on the test. It turned out I was the worst in the class!
To cheer or please (with the idea that); congratulate oneself, especially when the perception is false. In phrasal verb "to flatter with": to encourage, inspire with hope.
Where this word comes from
*From Middle English flatteren, flateren (“to flutter, float, fawn over”), probably a conflation of Old English floterian, flotorian (“to flutter, float, be disquieted”), from Proto-West Germanic *flotrōn, from Proto-Germanic *flutrōną (“to be floating”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow, swim”), equivalent to float + -er; and Old Norse flaðra (“to fawn on someone, flatter”), from Proto-Germanic *flaþrōną (“to fawn over, flutter”), from Proto-Indo-European *peled- (“moisture, wetness”), *pel- (“to gush, pour out, fill, flow, swim, fly”). Cognate with Scots flatter, flotter (“to float; splash; cover with liquid”), Middle Dutch flatteren (“to embellish, flatter, caress”), German flattern (“to flutter”). *The word was also falsely associated with Middle French flatter (“to flatter, to caress with the flat of the hand”), from Old French flater (“to deceive by concealing the truth, to stroke with the palm of the hand”), from Frankish *flat (“palm, flat of the hand”), from Proto-Germanic *flatą, *flatō (“palm, sole”), from *flataz (“flat”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂-, *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”); related to Old High German flazza (“palm, flat of the hand”), Old High German flaȥ (“level, flat”), Old Saxon flat (“flat”), Old Norse flatr (“flat”) (whence English flat), Old Frisian flet, flette (“dwelling, house”), Old English flet, flett (“ground floor, dwelling”). More at flat.
A type of set tool used by blacksmiths.
A flat-faced fulling hammer.
A drawplate with a narrow, rectangular orifice, for drawing flat strips such as watch springs.
Someone who flattens, purposely or accidentally. Also flattener.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree English flat Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English flatter From flat (“to make flat, flatten”) + -er (agent suffix).
Someone who lives in a rented flat.
Where this word comes from
From flat (“dwelling, apartment”) + -er (residency suffix).
comparative form of flat: more flat
Where this word comes from
From flat + -er (comparative suffix). Compare Icelandic flatari (“flatter, more flat”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.