admire
[ad-mahyuh r]
- to regard with wonder, pleasure, or approval.
- to regard with wonder or surprise (usually used ironically or sarcastically): I admire your audacity.
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- to feel or express admiration.
- Dialect. to take pleasure; like or desire: I would admire to go.
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- be admiring of, Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. to admire: He's admiring of his brother's farm.
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Origin of admire
1580–90; < Latin admīrārī, equivalent to ad- ad- + mīrārī (in Medieval Latin mīrāre) to wonder at, admire
Synonyms
See more synonyms for admire on Thesaurus.com1. esteem, revere, venerate.
Antonyms
1. despise.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for admire
Contemporary Examples
Something about it I admire and something about it I find unpersuasive.
He also recalls the many visitors who would often go to the island to admire its harvests and wildlife.
You have to admire his convictions; most frustrated auteurs in this town just call such things “an Alan Smithee project.”
He allows the subject to float over to Hitchcock with a calm directness that I admire.
It rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen.
Are Politicians Too Dumb to Understand the Lyrics to ‘Born in the USA’?Parker Molloy
November 6, 2014
Historical Examples
Mr. Paine did not admire Mrs. Davis, and was not likely to be influenced by her prejudices.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Then you will understand, and understanding, you will admire his courage.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
It's a good bluff, as I said before, and I admire the way you worked it.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
I admire him—you'd have to see him in the hospital, with every one deferring to him and all that, to understand.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
True, Shakespeare was not the kind of man Englishmen are accustomed to admire.
The Man ShakespeareFrank Harris
admire
- to regard with esteem, respect, approval, or pleased surprise
- archaic to wonder at
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin admīrāri to wonder at, from ad- to, at + mīrāri to wonder, from mīrus wonderful
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for admire
v.
early 15c. (implied in admired), from Middle French admirer (Old French amirer, 14c.), or directly from Latin admirari "to wonder at" (see admiration). Related: Admiring; admiringly.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper