gratulate

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin congrātŭlor

Verb

1. (archaic) To express joy at (an event or situation).
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act I, Scene 1,^[1]

     To gratify the good Andronicus,

     And gratulate his safe return to Rome,

     The people will accept whom he admits.

   • 1604, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, London: Thomas Bushell, [Scene 8],^[2]

     […] his friends and nearest companions,

     Did gratulate his safetie with kinde words,

2. (archaic) To greet, welcome, salute.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act IV, Scene 1,^[3]

     Queen Elizabeth. […] Whither away?

     Lady Anne. No farther than the Tower; and, as I guess,

     Upon the like devotion as yourselves,

     To gratulate the gentle princes there.

   • 1822, William Wordsworth, “Recovery” (Ecclesiastical Sketches/Sonnets, VII) in The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1827, Volume 3, p. 33,^[4]

     […] when a storm hath ceased, the birds regain

     Their cheerfulness, and busily retrim

     Their nests, or chant a gratulating hymn

     To the blue ether and bespangled plain;

   • 1881, James Thomson, “Two Sonnets,” II, in Vane’s Story, Weddah and Om-el-Bonain, and Other Poems, London: Reeves & Turner, p. 166,^[5]

     Striving to sing glad songs, I but attain

     Wild discords sadder than Grief’s saddest tune

     As if an owl with his harsh screech should strain

     To over-gratulate a thrush of June.

Adjective

gratulate (comparative more gratulate, superlative most gratulate)

1. (obsolete) Worthy of gratulation.
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act V, Scene 1,^[6]

     Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:

     There’s more behind that is more gratulate.

Anagrams

• glutarate

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Esperanto

Adverb

gratulate

1. present adverbial passive participle of gratuli

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Latin

Participle

(deprecated template usage) grātulāte

1. vocative masculine singular of grātulātus