gratify
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to satisfy or please
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to yield to or indulge (a desire, whim, etc)
-
obsolete to reward
Related Words
See humor.
Other Word Forms
- gratifiable adjective
- gratifiedly adverb
- gratifier noun
- overgratify verb (used with object)
- pregratify verb (used with object)
- supergratify verb (used with object)
- ungratifiable adjective
- ungratified adjective
- well-gratified adjective
Etymology
Origin of gratify
1350–1400; Middle English gratifien < Latin grātificāre, equivalent to grāt ( us ) pleasing + -i- -i- + -ficāre -fy
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.
Does the work you do now gratify you any differently than it did when you were starting out?
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2025
Finding the least taxing way to activate your inner circle could gratify — and edify — all involved, and restore a sense of control over your own well-being.
From Washington Post • Dec. 21, 2022
Too often, ads are written to gratify sellers rather than bring in buyers, according to Saatchi.
From Seattle Times • May 24, 2022
In his place, Lewis Cass captured the Democratic nomination by equivocating about the meaning of popular sovereignty to gratify voters in both sections.
From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018
But speculations such as these, though they absorbed Dewey, did not gratify him or give him a sense of “getting somewhere.”
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
