ingratiate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ingratiate
First recorded in 1615–25; perhaps from Latin in grātiam “into favor,” after Italian ingraziare; see in, grace, -ate 1
Explanation
To ingratiate is to make obvious efforts to gain someone's favor, in other words — to kiss up to someone. Ingratiate has not strayed much from its Latin roots, in gratiam, (in plus gratia meaning "favor") which means "in favor" or "for the favor of." To ingratiate is to gain the favor of someone by doing lots of favors to the point of being a nudge. Like the teacher's pet who answers every question, stays after class to clean the chalkboard, and brings the teacher an apple every day. When you ingratiate yourself to people, you risk annoying them — like a little dog nipping at their heels.
Vocabulary lists containing ingratiate
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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:
This was a way to further ingratiate himself to the man who called him “Johnny.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Ross, meanwhile, is trying to ingratiate himself with and improve the local community by funding scholarships for hundreds of local public high-school students to attend a nearby community college.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
He appeared to ingratiate himself into royal circles too, becoming a director of Pitch@Palace in 2016, and being appointed to the board of a royal charity, St George's House.
From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2026
But when Oliver walks into the store, entourage in tow, Matthew makes a play to ingratiate himself with the pop star that goes better than he ever could’ve expected.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2025
Libya—Mu’ammar Gadhafi was attempting to ingratiate himself with the United States and couldn’t take the chance of antagonizing President Bush.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Ferrety and clean-shaven, Zanjani never served in the military, but he ingratiated himself with the Revolutionary Guard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
Oil companies have ingratiated themselves to investors since the pandemic by doing the exact opposite: ruling out expensive investments in new drilling in favor of spending that money on bigger dividends.
From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026
Paradis had ingratiated himself at City Hall, befriending top city officials.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
Barry Keoghan sported a similarly spangled jacket over a mesh tank top, looking not too different than his “Saltburn” character did when he ingratiated himself with the nobility.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
I reasoned that if I somehow kept improving my English and ingratiated Mrs. Smith by the fact, then possibly she would give me more books like Treasure Island each time Granny took me along.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
"I really enjoyed the way that Stagg was not interested in ingratiating himself with anybody," he told BBC Culture correspondent David Sillito, calling him "a real fish out of water in this situation".
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
He would begin a performance with Glass at the piano, bestowing an ingratiating quality of quiet pleasure on Ginsberg’s flowery imagery.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
To investigators in the U.K., what’s glaring instead is that his ingratiating friends leaked privileged financial information to the former banker that he might have parlayed into insider-trading gains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
Thus far, he seems to have done a terrible job of ingratiating himself to others: Most recently, the office’s top criminal prosecutor resigned rather than follow his allegedly improper orders.
From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2025
He almost continually flashed about the room the ingratiating boyish smile.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
