noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of blarney
First recorded in 1760–70; after the hamlet Blarney, in Ireland; see Blarney stone
Explanation
Blarney refers to smooth, flattering talk and actions meant to win someone over, like when someone sweet-talks their way into getting an extra dessert. The word blarney comes from Blarney Castle in Ireland, where kissing the Blarney Stone is said to give the gift of persuasive speech. This term describes gentle and flattering words used to charm or influence someone. An example of blarney could be telling your friend they make the best cookies ever, hoping they'll bake more for you. Politicians are often known for their blarney, using it to gain support and votes.
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:
The man known for his charm and Irish blarney — a gift for the gab — was an ardent advocate of stronger U.S.-Canadian relations.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
And there is a little whimsy, or perhaps a touch of blarney, in “Belfast,” though you can sense Branagh hard at work, straining to keep every impulse toward cutesiness in check.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2021
With his penchant for poetry and blarney, the former vice president has emerged as a sort of national eulogist in chief.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2019
My primary form of self-care was the constant generation of blarney.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 21, 2019
“You are right to laugh, Captain Short. For a while there, I did believe in all that under-the-rainbow crock-of-gold blarney, but now I know better. Now I know about the hostage fund.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
But their handiwork caught the eye of another Democrat, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had come into the Nixon White House as a presidential assistant, and who blarneyed Nixon into endorsing the idea.
From Time Magazine Archive
I don't want to be petted and blarneyed.
From John Bull's Other Island by Bernard Shaw
She presented Joy-of-Life with a banana which she had blarneyed from our Italian fruit-vender, and gave me a little jar of cream, begged or bullied from the milkman in the early dawn.
From Sigurd Our Golden Collie and Other Comrades of the Road by Katharine Lee Bates
They blarneyed me up and they blarneyed me down, and they said nobody could cook like Paddy.
From On the Firing Line by Hamilton Brock Fuller
Then we argued among ourselves, coaxed, blarneyed, persuaded, and tried to bribe one another.
From The Ivory Trail by Talbot Mundy
Despite blarneying speeches by Evita, a rank & file strike started.
From Time Magazine Archive
“You had ever a sweetly blarneying tongue,” said she, and bestowed a parting caress impartially upon both the persons 247 before her.
From The Indifference of Juliet by Henry Hutt
I think I have heard something like that before, my blarneying Plantagenet.
From The Iron Game A Tale of the War by Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan
Her face is cunning and pretty, and she makes a funny, blarneying noise when I go up to her.
From A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
He looked every whit as Irish as his name, and he was scolding and blarneying the birds by turn.
From Leerie by Ruth Sawyer
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