and hypocrisy. Compliment may be a sincere expression of due respect and esteem, or it may be unmeaning;
flattery is apt to become gross; adulation is always servile, and usually fulsome.
Adulator
(Ad"u*la`tor) n. [L., fr. adulari: cf. F. adulateur.] A servile or hypocritical flatterer. Carlyle.
Adulatory
(Ad"u*la*to*ry) a. [L. adulatorius, fr. adulari: cf. OF. adulatoire.] Containing excessive
praise or compliment; servilely praising; flattering; as, an adulatory address.
A mere rant of adulatory freedom.
Burke.
Adulatress
(Ad"u*la`tress) n. A woman who flatters with servility.
Adult
(A*dult") a. [L. adultus, p. p. of adolescere, akin to alere to nourish: cf. F. adulte. See Adolescent,
Old.] Having arrived at maturity, or to full size and strength; matured; as, an adult person or plant; an
adult ape; an adult age.
Adult
(A*dult"), n. A person, animal, or plant grown to full size and strength; one who has reached maturity.
In the common law, the term is applied to a person who has attained full age or legal majority; in the
civil law, to males after the age of fourteen, and to females after twelve.
Adulter
(A*dul"ter) v. i. [L. adulterare.] To commit adultery; to pollute. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
Adulterant
(A*dul"ter*ant) n. [L. adulterans, p. pr. of adulterare.] That which is used to adulterate
anything. — a. Adulterating; as, adulterant agents and processes.
Adulterate
(A*dul"ter*ate) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Adulterated ; p. pr. & vb. n. Adulterating ] [L. adulteratus,
p. p. of adulterare, fr. adulter adulterer, prob. fr. ad + alter other, properly one who approaches
another on account of unlawful love. Cf. Advoutry.]
1. To defile by adultery. [Obs.] Milton.
2. To corrupt, debase, or make impure by an admixture of a foreign or a baser substance; as, to adulterate
food, drink, drugs, coin, etc.
The present war has . . . adulterated our tongue with strange words.
Spectator.
Syn. — To corrupt; defile; debase; contaminate; vitiate; sophisticate.
Adulterate
(A*dul"ter*ate), v. i. To commit adultery. [Obs.]
Adulterate
(A*dul"ter*ate) a.
1. Tainted with adultery.
2. Debased by the admixture of a foreign substance; adulterated; spurious.
— A*dul"ter*ate*ly, adv. — A*dul"ter*ate*ness, n.
