flattered

[flat-erd]

adjective

1. feeling gratified or honored by unexpected favorable attention, as an invitation or compliment.

   Thank you so much for linking to my recipe; I'm beyond flattered!

2. praised or complimented in an insincere way, usually as a form of manipulation.

   Having received the supreme compliment from his guru, the flattered and now penniless devotee offered to work for him for nothing.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of flatter.

Other Word Forms

• half-flattered adjective
• unflattered adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of flattered¹

flatter ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ²

Example Sentences

And as a former Apple operations employee, Jones was flattered when Flighty won an Apple Design Award.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Because now Eisman was so obviously listening to you, and, as he listened so selectively, you felt flattered.

Read more on Literature

We’re flattered by the attention, but the spin doctors cried fake news rather than address the substantive arguments.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Achieving an industrial margin of over 10% is impressive on the face of it, but the figure is flattered by higher R&D capitalization and a property sale in buses, Bernstein says.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“There’s a real novelty to it and it’s incredibly flattering in a way that we are not used to being flattered,” Rogen said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times