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Ingratiate vs Entertain - What's the difference?

ingratiate | entertain |

As verbs the difference between ingratiate and entertain

is that ingratiate is (reflexive) to bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please him or her while entertain is to amuse (someone); to engage the attention of agreeably.

As a noun entertain is

(obsolete) ; pleasure.

ingratiate

English

Verb

  • (reflexive) To bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please him or her.
  • * 1849 , , Shirley , ch. 15:
  • [H]e considered this offering an homage to his merits, and an attempt on the part of the heiress to ingratiate herself into his priceless affections.
  • * 1903 , , The Way of All Flesh , ch. 58:
  • [H]e would pat the children on the head when he saw them on the stairs, and ingratiate himself with them as far as he dared.
  • * 2007 July 9, , " Why Maliki Is Still Around," Time (retrieved 26 May 2014):
  • He ingratiated himself with the Kurdish bloc when he stood up to aggressive Turkish rhetoric about the Kurdish border in May.
  • To recommend; to render easy or agreeable.
  • * , "Sermon XIII" in Miscellaneous Theological Works of Henry Hammond, Volume 3 (1850 edition), p. 283 (Google preview):
  • What difficulty would it [the love of Christ] not ingratiate to us?

    entertain

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To amuse (someone); to engage the attention of agreeably.
  • to entertain friends with lively conversation
    The motivational speaker not only instructed but also entertained the audience.
  • (transitive, and, intransitive) To have someone over at one's home for a party or visit.
  • They enjoy entertaining a lot.
  • * Bible, Heb. xiii. 2
  • Be not forgetful to entertain strangers
  • To receive and take into consideration; to have a thought in mind.
  • The committee would like to entertain the idea of reducing the budget figures.
    to entertain a proposal
  • * De Quincey
  • I am not here going to entertain so large a theme as the philosophy of Locke.
  • * Hawthorne
  • A rumour gained ground, — and, however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people.
  • (obsolete) To take or keep in one's service; to maintain; to support; to harbour; to keep.
  • * Shakespeare
  • You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred.
  • (obsolete) To meet or encounter, as an enemy.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To lead on; to bring along; to introduce.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • to baptize all nations, and entertain them into the services and institutions of the holy Jesus

    Derived terms

    * entertainer * entertaining * entertainment

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) ; pleasure.
  • (obsolete) Reception of a guest; welcome.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.8:
  • But neede, that answers not to all requests, / Bad them not looke for better entertayne […].

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