toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

ingratiate
in a sentence

show 158 more with this conextual meaning
  • Phil Fulmer may not have thought Miss Sue worthy of his attention but he quickly set about ingratiating himself with Leigh Anne.†   (source)
  • My best chance of living was to try and befriend Sarawa, try somehow to ingratiate myself with his friends.†   (source)
  • Indeed, for the next several decades alienists and their successors would find themselves hard-pressed to describe with any precision what it was about men like Holmes that could cause them to seem warm and ingratiating but also telegraph the vague sense that some important element of humanness was missing.†   (source)
  • I heard the alley door open and Willemse's voice, smooth and ingratiating.†   (source)
  • He tried to smile at her ingratiatingly and felt that shame again , he felt grotesque to himself, a stranger.†   (source)
  • He likes to ingratiate himself with them.†   (source)
  • Don't be so ingratiating, Comrade," Ammu said.†   (source)
  • "Very well," he said, letting all the ingratiating charm fall from his voice.†   (source)
  • The article was an ingratiating portrait of the magazine and its staff, including illustrations with a particularly favourable portrait of Berger.†   (source)
  • Aga Hakim was slim, a couple inches taller than Moody, with a thick salt-and-pepper beard and an ingratiating, ever-present grin.†   (source)
  • "You wasted no time ingratiating yourself, did you?" he says.†   (source)
  • "Unlike some people," she sniffed, "I don't ingratiate myself with every monarch I meet."†   (source)
  • If officers stood on the sidewalk as he walked by, he bowed ingratiatingly at them.†   (source)
  • Her name was Michaela, but the men called her filthy things in dulcet, ingratiating voices, and she giggled with childish joy because she understood no English and thought they were flattering her and making harmless jokes.†   (source)
  • Cedric had his own bedroom, played in the complex's landscaped courtyard with other children, and attended a mostly white elementary school, where his studiousness and good manners quickly ingratiated him to his teachers.†   (source)
  • "Any fool could see how the girl has ingratiated herself with my father," Mr. Pritchard said.†   (source)
  • If possible, Jed's expression grew even meaner, but Jeremy merely smiled ingratiatingly in return.†   (source)
  • In little time, fearing he might be hanged as a traitor and hoping to ingratiate himself with his old military friend William Howe, Lee would resort to offering his thoughts to Howe on ways the British could win the war.†   (source)
  • Although he had always been smooth about ingratiating himself with an interviewee when he had been a reporter, he was awkward now.†   (source)
  • Not ingratiated myself.†   (source)
  • I narrowed my eyes at Total, who pulled his lips back over his teeth in an embarrassed, ingratiating grin.†   (source)
  • Her teeth were crooked, but there was something ingratiating about that smile.†   (source)
  • The leader assumed an ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • You will submit your resignation when you report to my office tomorrow," the General declared, but then his voice softened, became conciliatory, ingratiating, as though he realized he was pushing too hard, too quickly.†   (source)
  • "Mother will insist on paying calls so that we might ingratiate ourselves," Felicity says.†   (source)
  • 'I hope your mother feels better,' he said, in a tone that proved that even someone who looked like Mussolini could be ingratiating.†   (source)
  • Otherwise, he might be tempted to sacrifice his duty to ingratiate himself with people whose favor was necessary to stay in office.†   (source)
  • He had made no attempt to ingratiate himself; he was what he was and he had done what he had done for the good of Mother China.†   (source)
  • For absolutely no reason except to ingratiate himself and show off his hot little Ivy League intellect.†   (source)
  • ROS (hurt, desperately ingratiating) : I-I bet you all the money I've got the year of my birth doubled is an odd number.†   (source)
  • He was ingratiating now, inquisitive without being nosy, and I responded easily to the questions.†   (source)
  • To promote this effort I decided to make an all-out effort to ingratiate myself with Mimi.†   (source)
  • "Any way you want it," he said ingratiatingly, and a surge of pleasant expectation grew in him.†   (source)
  • Perhaps that man from Cultural Relations had remembered her—that fair, rather effeminate man who was so ingratiating.†   (source)
  • His accent is hard to understand, but his manners are ingratiating.†   (source)
  • This, despite her easily hurt look, her ingratiating ways.†   (source)
  • She then turned to me with an ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • The voice was overly ingratiating, sedulously sweet.†   (source)
  • He made no effort to be civil, or his normal unctuous, ingratiating self.†   (source)
  • He'd almost given in a couple of times, he'd found it hard to resist their ingratiating wriggles, their pitiful whining, but he couldn't afford to feed them; anyway they were useless to him.†   (source)
  • He gave me an ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • That's all there is to it," the fattish Dr. Blodgett announced through the microphone, in the ingratiating sales tone of a department-store floorwalker.†   (source)
  • That much Brienne could do, but her sullen silences soon began to fray his good humor almost as much as Qyburn's endless attempts to be ingratiating.†   (source)
  • I steered Mrs. Brown toward the door, thanked her for her ingratiating speech, and promised her I would severely punish the whisperers in the class.†   (source)
  • The voice broke in with its ingratiating molasses pokiness and warmth, still an uncanny replica of the speech of my Carolina forebears, lilting, lulling: "I'm sho' lookin' forward to that trip with you an' Miz Sophie.†   (source)
  • He put me quickly at ease when I tried to apologize for my lateness, and offered me a bottle of Molson's Canadian ale in the most ingratiating manner by saying, "Nathan tells me that you are a connoisseur of malt beverages."†   (source)
  • He was ingratiating on the phone and said we could sleep on mats in the Hilton Head Elementary School.†   (source)
  • Almost always he nodded his head affirmatively, delivered an oily, ingratiating, and hollow sermon about the good job I was doing and how much he appreciated the letters I was writing him and how I reminded him of the young Henry Piedmont—idealistic, capable of sacrifice, and sweating for the improvement of mankind.†   (source)
  • Now Williams was apparently willing to do anything to ingratiate himself with the jury.†   (source)
  • Has cousin Cleos truly swallowed this kettle of dung, or is he striving to ingratiate himself?†   (source)
  • The colonel sat down and settled back, calm and cagey suddenly, and ingratiatingly polite.†   (source)
  • I wish to ingratiate myself.†   (source)
  • In order to ingratiate himself with them he took a turn in the kitchen now and then — all three of the artists sneered at microwaves and were into boiling their own spaghetti — but he wasn't a very good cook.†   (source)
  • There can be bonds of real affection, she said, blinking at us ingratiatingly, under such conditions.†   (source)
  • You know, my friend, that he is a man of principle, and that he will not violate the dictates of his conscience to ingratiate himself with a minister, or with your more respected body.†   (source)
  • Over what seemed like the course of a week, Rialla tried to ingratiate herself with Nasuada and, in a sideways manner, convince her that the Varden's campaign was doomed, that their reasons for fighting were flawed, and that it was only right and proper to submit to Galbatorix's authority.†   (source)
  • Paul Larkin reached for the papers hesitantly; he looked ingratiatingly helpless, "It's only a legal technicality, Hank," he said.†   (source)
  • And he saw what Paul Larkin must have been at that time-a youth with an aged baby's face, smiling ingratiatingly, joylessly, begging to be spared, pleading with the universe to give him a chance.†   (source)
  • Emotionally and intellectually he was the romantic inheritor of the Germanic culture of another century, of a time irreparably gone and fallen away, and thus he had no inkling of how impossible it would be to try to ingratiate himself in his antiquated costumery within the corridors of this stainless-steel, jackbooted, mammoth modern power, the first technocratic state, with its Regulierungen and Gesetzverordnungen, its electrified filing-card systems and classification procedures, its…†   (source)
  • "John!" ventured a small ingratiating voice from the bathroom.†   (source)
  • His baby eyes looked at Roark with an ingratiating plea.†   (source)
  • The reporter returned his most ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • "We ain't doing nothing, lady," said Neeley with that ingratiating smile which always won over his mother.†   (source)
  • She could only stare over the banisters at him and watch his face change from harsh tenseness to a half-contemptuous, half-ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • He walked with an upright carriage, both ingratiating and defiant—but one shoulder was higher than the other.†   (source)
  • 'Now you are here, let me show you everything,' she said, her voice ingratiating and sweet as honey, horrible, false.†   (source)
  • I have no power of ingratiating myself.†   (source)
  • However, whenever his eyes met David's father's, the expression on his face tended to freeze into one of ingratiating self-effacement.†   (source)
  • PARRITT—(bending toward him—in a low, ingratiating, apologetic voice) I'm sorry for riding you, Larry.†   (source)
  • This shiny pebble is Madame Carlo, and I will bury her deep because of her fawning and ingratiating manners, because of the sixpence she gave me for keeping my knuckles flat when I played my scales.†   (source)
  • Rex, in the comparative freedom of London, became abject to Julia; he planned his life about hers, going where he would meet her, ingratiating himself with those who could report well of him to her; he sat on a number of charitable committees in order to be near Lady Marchmain; he offered his services to Brideshead in getting him a seat in Parliament (but was there rebuffed); he expressed a keen interest in the Catholic Church until he found that this was no way to Julia's heart.†   (source)
  • "Yes'm, it's me," said Emmie, tossing her head with an ingratiating smile and starting toward the steps.†   (source)
  • Then he moved up to him with an ingratiating smile, but stopped short again.†   (source)
  • "You like the coat, eh?" was Rubenstein's ingratiating comment as she opened the door.†   (source)
  • She seemed to smile at him, showing her teeth in an ingratiating rather than a menacing way.†   (source)
  • Matvy Ilyitch approached her with a majestic air and ingratiating speeches.†   (source)
  • "Are you looking for anything, Mr. Procureur?" asked Benedetto, with his most ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • He was twisting and twirling about, ingratiating himself with the daughters of an ancient General.†   (source)
  • The pedlar's smile grew more ingratiating, though he understood no word of what Cronshaw said, and like a conjurer he produced a sandalwood box.†   (source)
  • In appearance Hector is a neatly built young man of twenty-four, with a short, smartly trimmed black beard, clear, well shaped eyes, and an ingratiating vivacity of expression.†   (source)
  • There was such an ingratiating tone about Hurstwood's voice, the insinuation was so perceptible that even Carrie got the humor of it.†   (source)
  • The superior capacity he immediately evinced, his constitutional sobriety, ingratiating deference to superiors, together with a peculiar ferreting genius manifested on a singular occasion; all this capped by a certain austere patriotism abruptly advanced him to the position of Master-at-arms.†   (source)
  • So now he contrived an eager, ingratiating smile, which he bestowed on Mr. Squires, and added: "If you'd like to give me a chance, I'd try very hard and I'd be very willing."†   (source)
  • It reminded Philip of the timid, ingratiating look of a puppy that has been beaten for naughtiness and wants to reconcile himself with his master.†   (source)
  • "You won't need much watching, will you?" he volunteered, in a sort of ingratiating and help-me-out kind of way.†   (source)
  • At the same time so groundless and insignificant were his claims to any consideration here, and so grateful was he for anything that might be done for him, that he felt heavily obligated already and tried to smile his best and most ingratiating smile.†   (source)
  • "Well, I know I've learned a few things, of course," added Clyde, flushing slightly and feeling down deep within himself a keen resentment at the same time that he achieved a half-ingratiating and half-apologetic smile.†   (source)
  • And as she moved over slightly from the door to make room for him, Clyde almost petrified by this unexpected recognition, and quite shaken out of his pose and self-contemplation, not being sure whether he had heard aright, now approached, his manner the epitome almost of a self-ingratiating and somewhat affectionate and wistful dog of high breeding and fine temperament.†   (source)
  • And, getting her once more, began one of those long and evasive and, in this instance, ingratiating explanations which eventually, after he had insisted that he had actually been sick—confined to his room with a fever and hence not able to get to a telephone—and because, as he now said, he had finally decided that it would be best if he were to make some explanation to his uncle, so that he might return some time in the future, if necessary—he, by using the most pleading, if not…†   (source)
  • I do not know whether he has any design of ingratiating himself with either of us, Harriet, by additional softness, but it strikes me that his manners are softer than they used to be.†   (source)
  • Although Prince Vasili listened reluctantly and not very politely to the elderly lady, even betraying some impatience, she gave him an ingratiating and appealing smile, and took his hand that he might not go away.†   (source)
  • He laid aside, too, all the dominant dignity and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and ingratiating.†   (source)
  • Once cleaned out and set to the work, his fat bare legs could cover a surprising amount of ground, and this was the reason why, while Kim and the lama lay in a leaky hut at Ziglaur till the storm should be over-past, an oily, wet, but always smiling Bengali, talking the best of English with the vilest of phrases, was ingratiating himself with two sodden and rather rheumatic foreigners.†   (source)
  • Rospigliosi, quite set up with his new dignities, went with a good appetite and his most ingratiating manner.†   (source)
  • He was equable and not cringing with his superiors, was free and ingratiating in his behavior with his equals, and was contemptuously indulgent with his inferiors.†   (source)
  • All at once there came up a bald-headed, elderly man with ingratiating little eyes, wearing a full, summer overcoat.†   (source)
  • The more emotional and ingratiating the expression of Natasha's face became, the more serious and stern grew Sonya's.†   (source)
  • She watched his progress towards the pavilion, saw him now responding condescendingly to an ingratiating bow, now exchanging friendly, nonchalant greetings with his equals, now assiduously trying to catch the eye of some great one of this world, and taking off his big round hat that squeezed the tips of his ears.†   (source)
  • He carefully and hastily felt himself all over, readjusted his hat, and pulling himself together drew himself up and, at the very moment when the Emperor, having alighted from the sleigh, lifted his eyes to him, handed him the report and began speaking in his smooth, ingratiating voice.†   (source)
  • But there were no dealers with voices of ingratiating affability inviting customers to enter; there were no hawkers, nor the usual motley crowd of female purchasers—but only soldiers, in uniforms and overcoats though without muskets, entering the Bazaar empty-handed and silently making their way out through its passages with bundles.†   (source)
  • And the lock of hair—that too I had always carried about me in the same pocket-book, which was now searched by Madam with the most ingratiating virulence,—the dear lock—all, every memento was torn from me.†   (source)
  • His two teeth stuck out over his lower lip, and he grinned ingratiatingly.†   (source)
  • Parritt leans toward him and speaks ingratiatingly in a low secretive tone.†   (source)
  • (ingratiatingly) Come on, Larry, have a drink.†   (source)
  • "My brother is a man of great taciturnity and strong mind, and when he speaks, though he practices no graces and ingratiations, all men, especially those of the sober sort who have responsibility and power, weigh his words with respect.†   (source)
  • Eager for praise, for public esteem, and expert in ingratiation, this demon possessed him utterly at the most unexpected moments, in the most decorous surroundings, when he was himself doing all in his power to preserve the good opinion in which he was held.†   (source)
  • There is a shifting defiance and ingratiation in his light-blue eyes and an irritating aggressiveness in his manner.†   (source)
  • The encouragement of kitsch is merely another of the inexpensive ways in which totalitarian regimes seek to ingratiate themselves with their subjects.†   (source)
  • It had occurred to her that, with my interest in architecture, my true métier was designing scenery for the films, and she had asked two Hollywood magnates to the party with whom she wished to ingratiate me.†   (source)
  • …should "try to get the customer's psychology," the boy would fall into step with an unsuspecting pedestrian, open the broad sheets of The Post under the man's nose, and in a torrential harangue, sown thickly with stuttering speech, buffoonery, and ingratiation, delivered so rapidly that the man could neither accept nor reject the magazine, hound him before a grinning public down the length of a street, backing him defensively into a wall, and taking from the victim's eager fingers the…†   (source)
  • Sitting next to him, David's one concern had been how to ingratiate himself, how to keep Leo amused, keep him from remembering that time was passing.†   (source)
  • He grinned ingratiatingly.†   (source)
  • (He looks from one to the other of their oblivious faces with a strange, sly, calculating look—ingratiatingly) I was tinking how you was bot' reg'lar guys.†   (source)
  • Miss Lucilla Harris inquired, briskly and ingratiatingly, tapping the counter with both hands.†   (source)
  • He was really going to ingratiate himself with me.†   (source)
  • "Oh, thank you, Miriam, then we'll come," replied her mother, almost ingratiatingly.†   (source)
  • "And not only that," went on Mason, very softly and most ingratiatingly, "but there's Mrs. Peyton.†   (source)
  • She smiled oddly and rather ingratiatingly, a smile and a mood which Clyde failed to interpret.†   (source)
  • 'Huh!' said Kim, recognizing Hurree Babu, who smiled ingratiatingly.†   (source)
  • For several weeks I didn't see him or hear his voice on the phone — mostly I was in New York, trotting around with Jordan and trying to ingratiate myself with her senile aunt — but finally I went over to his house one Sunday afternoon.†   (source)
  • You're not at all averse to getting involved in things that are not harmless, but then you treat them as if they were, and you think that will ingratiate you with God and man.†   (source)
  • Her pale mouth extended from ear to ear, her teeth projected in a solid wedge, and she had little, squinty eyes that peeped ingratiatingly over the side sweep of her nose.†   (source)
  • Carol smiled upon them ingratiatingly.†   (source)
  • He had opened a small shop on Glasnevin Road where, he flattered himself, his manners would ingratiate him with the housewives of the district.†   (source)
  • Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these slights and with what unwearying politeness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all.†   (source)
  • Shefford resolved to remain in Stonebridge and ingratiate himself deeper into the regard of the Mormons.†   (source)
  • White Fang flattened his ears ingratiatingly, but remained where he was, making no attempt to approach.†   (source)
  • He knew that he could sophisticate himself finally into saying that his own weakness was just the result of circumstances and environment; that often when he raged at himself as an egotist something would whisper ingratiatingly: "No.†   (source)
  • Carol smiled ingratiatingly, to indicate that she was indeed one who desired to sacrifice, but she sighed, "I don't know; I'm afraid I'm not heroic.†   (source)
  • Just as the visitors were coming in, Lebedeff, wishing to ingratiate himself with the great lady, had pulled this paper from his pocket, and presented it to her, indicating a few columns marked in pencil.†   (source)
  • They have no method, no understanding of how to ingratiate themselves in youthful favor, save when they find virtue in the toils.†   (source)
  • I shall just tell Elizabetha Prokofievna about you, and if she wishes to receive you at once—as I shall advise her—I strongly recommend you to ingratiate yourself with her at the first opportunity, for my wife may be of the greatest service to you in many ways.†   (source)
  • One secretly betrayed girl in the background while he had the effrontery to ingratiate himself into the affections of another, this time obviously one of much higher social position here.†   (source)
  • "But I can't, Uncle Samuel!" called Sondra, familiarly and showily and yet somehow sweetly, seeking to ingratiate herself by this affected relationship.†   (source)
  • He went about with an indescribable air which seemed to ingratiate him instantly with all with whom he came in contact—the clerks behind the counter no less than the strangers who entered and asked this or that question of him.†   (source)
  • And he, in order to hold her favor and properly ingratiate himself, proceeded to buy them, though at times and because of some other developments in connection with his family, it pressed him hard to do so.†   (source)
  • At the same time the admiration, to say nothing of the private overtures of a certain type of woman or girl, who inhibited perhaps by the social milieu in which she found herself, but having means, could invade such a region as this, and by wiles and smiles and the money she possessed, ingratiate herself into the favor of some of the more attractive of these young men here, was much commented upon.†   (source)
  • Arriving at the Trumbull's, a family which centered about one Douglas Trumbull, a prosperous lawyer and widower and speculator of this region, who, by reason of his children as well as his own good manners and legal subtlety, had managed to ingratiate himself into the best circles of Lycurgus society, she suddenly confided to Jill Trumbull, the elder of the lawyer's two daughters: "You know I had a funny experience to-day."†   (source)
  • He beamed ingratiatingly up at her, and Hortense, sensing the nature of the overture and resenting it—from him—drew back slightly.†   (source)
  • "Just hang up your hat and coat over there in one of those lockers," he proceeded mildly and ingratiatingly even.†   (source)
  • And at once Jephson replied, most suavely and ingratiatingly: "Under the circumstances, your Honor, I apologize to you and to the attorney for the People and to this jury.†   (source)
  • You declare that you are afraid of nothing and at the same time try to ingratiate yourself in our good opinion.†   (source)
  • Lord Decimus, though one of the greatest of the earth, was not remarkable for ingratiatory manners, and Ferdinand had coached him up to the point of noticing all the fellows he might find there, and saying he was glad to see them.†   (source)
  • Much as he had ingratiated himself with his aunt, she had never yet invited him to stay under her roof, and here was a young whipper-snapper, who at first sight was made welcome there.†   (source)
  • The large men in white waistcoats who waited at Scape's dinners, greengrocers, bank-porters, and milkmen in their private capacity, left their addresses and ingratiated themselves with the butler.†   (source)
  • But to show he was not trying to ingratiate himself with Vronsky, he promptly added some slightly critical remarks.†   (source)
  • The Petersburg Freemasons all came to see him, tried to ingratiate themselves with him, and it seemed to them all that he was preparing something for them and concealing it.†   (source)
  • Boris, who had come to Moscow on leave a few days before, had been anxious to be presented to Prince Nicholas Bolkonski, and had contrived to ingratiate himself so well that the old prince in his case made an exception to the rule of not receiving bachelors in his house.†   (source)
  • Makar Alexeevich came twice that evening shuffling along in his galoshes as far as the door and stopped and looked ingratiatingly at Pierre.†   (source)
  • He imagined therefore that whatever quarrel was between them, it would be certainly made up at the return of Mr Jones; an event from which he promised great advantages, if he could take this opportunity of ingratiating himself with that young gentleman; and if he could by any means be instrumental in procuring his return, he doubted not, as we have before said, but it would as highly advance him in the favour of Mr Allworthy.†   (source)
  • By such kind of talents he had so ingratiated himself with the squire, that he was a most welcome guest at his table, and a favourite companion in his sport: everything which the squire held most dear, to wit, his guns, dogs, and horses, were now as much at the command of Jones, as if they had been his own.†   (source)
  • In hopes to ingratiate myself further into his majesty's favour, I told him of "an invention, discovered between three and four hundred years ago, to make a certain powder, into a heap of which, the smallest spark of fire falling, would kindle the whole in a moment, although it were as big as a mountain, and make it all fly up in the air together, with a noise and agitation greater than thunder.†   (source)
  • He hath made many fruitless attempts to regain the confidence of Allworthy, or to ingratiate himself with Jones, both of whom he flatters to their faces, and abuses behind their backs.†   (source)
  • It was perhaps no easy matter to avoid him; for he required very little or no invitation; and as, being handsome and genteel, he found it no very difficult matter to ingratiate himself with the ladies, so, he having frequently drawn his sword, the men did not care publickly to affront him.†   (source)
  • The only way, as it appears to me, of solving this difficulty, is, by imputing it to that distance which was now grown between the lady and the housekeeper: whether this arose from a jealousy in Mrs Blifil, that Wilkins showed too great a respect to the foundling; for while she was endeavouring to ruin the little infant, in order to ingratiate herself with the captain, she was every day more and more commending it before Allworthy, as his fondness for it every day increased.†   (source)
  • All that day the serjeant and the young soldier marched together; and the former, who was an arch fellow, told the latter many entertaining stories of his campaigns, though in reality he had never made any; for he was but lately come into the service, and had, by his own dexterity, so well ingratiated himself with his officers, that he had promoted himself to a halberd; chiefly indeed by his merit in recruiting, in which he was most excellently well skilled.†   (source)
  • Indeed, his behaviour to Black George much ingratiated him with all the servants; for though that fellow was before universally disliked, yet he was no sooner turned away than he was as universally pitied; and the friendship and gallantry of Tom Jones was celebrated by them all with the highest applause; and they condemned Master Blifil as openly as they durst, without incurring the danger of offending his mother.†   (source)
  • These instructions, we are sorry to say, were communicated to her by Mrs Honour, into whose favour Lady Bellaston had now so ingratiated herself, that the violent affection which the good waiting-woman had formerly borne to Sophia was entirely obliterated by that great attachment which she had to her new mistress.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)