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Synonyms

felicitate

American  
[fi-lis-i-tayt] / fɪˈlɪs ɪˌteɪt /

verb (used with object)

  • felicitates,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • felicitated,
    past participle,  past
  • felicitating
    present participle
  1. to compliment upon a happy event; congratulate.

  2. Archaic. to make happy.


adjective

  1. Obsolete. made happy.

felicitate British  
/ fɪˈlɪsɪˌteɪt /

verb

  1. to wish joy to; congratulate

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of felicitate

First recorded in 1620–30; from Late Latin fēlīcitātus “made happy” (past participle of fēlīcitāre ); see felicity, -ate 1


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Thousands of people attended Sunday's event, which was held to felicitate a prominent social activist.

From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2023

Quick to felicitate the new champion was Rev. Gustave Purificato, the priest under whose wing he learned to fight in a Herkimer, N. Y. church basement.

From Time Magazine Archive

As one Socialist & Republican to another, he dashed down to Madrid to felicitate the new Socialist & Republican Government of Spain.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wherever the big British bird alighted for a few minutes to leave a passenger or pick up mail, in popped a Briton to felicitate and annoy King Albert.

From Time Magazine Archive

Congratulate, kon-grat′ū-lāt, v.t. to wish joy to on any fortunate event: to felicitate: to consider one's self fortunate in some matter.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

The married woman felicitates herself greatly, unless a tall daughter of nine or ten walks abroad at her side.

From The Spinster Book by Myrtle Reed

It was useless to explain that smallness sometimes renders a thing inconvenient, and this young man, doubtless, still felicitates himself upon his intimate acquaintance with that commodious pocket dictionary.

From Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking by John Hendricks Bechtel

The Commission, which has taken as its own the decision of the arbiter, approves the idea and felicitates the students on their patriotism and their thirst for knowledge—” “Well?”

From The Reign of Greed by Charles E. Derbyshire

Pliny, the naturalist, felicitates the Romans on having been for nearly six hundred years free from the brood of doctors.

From Woman in Science With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind by John Augustine Zahm

He begins by flattery; he felicitates you on your choice of the best picture in the room—the one that has been ‘universally admired by critics and collectors.’

From Masques & Phases by Robert Ross

Week prior, to 50,000 enthusiastic Democrats in Little Rock, Ark., Preacher Williams' home, Franklin D. Roosevelt had felicitated himself on the opportunity "to enjoy the kindness and the courtesy of true Arkansas hospitality."

From Time Magazine Archive

His retiring superior felicitated him, hoped he would serve out the five years left before his retirement.

From Time Magazine Archive

James A. Farley was castigated for making "a spoilsman's happy hunting ground of the Postal Department," which in turn was felicitated in an adjoining column for "a swell job on its bonus bond deliveries."

From Time Magazine Archive

Members felicitated dressy old James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois on his narrow escape from death from pneumonia in Moscow last autumn.

From Time Magazine Archive

And he called to Pukkie, who was following Captain Fergus about like a pet dog; and Pukkie came, and Bobby felicitated him upon his promotion.

From The Clammer and the Submarine by William John Hopkins

Jews felicitating them on Rosh Hashana observances marking the New Year 5722.

From Time Magazine Archive

At the moment we are felicitating ourselves—or, is it merely confusing ourselves?—over the revolution in Russia.

From Marse Henry (Volume 1) An Autobiography by Henry Watterson

Did it recognize smaller butterflies—the white and the yellow, and even the diminutive "copper"—as poor relations; felicitating itself, meanwhile, upon its own superior size, its brilliant orange-red eye-spots, and its gorgeous tails?

From A Rambler's lease by Bradford Torrey

He was felicitating himself, since without an acre of land or a drop of oil he had “declared himself in” on another’s wealth.

From The Law of Hemlock Mountain by Hugh Lundsford

We trust a country worthy of you; where Providence has unfolded a scene as new as it is august, as felicitating as it is unexampled.

From Priestley in America 1794-1804 by Edgar Fahs Smith

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