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in power; conduct or address designed to gain favor; courtliness of manners; civility; compliment; flattery. No solace could her paramour intreat Her once to show, ne court, nor dalliance. Spenser. I went to make my court to the Dike and Duches of Newcastle. Evelyn.

established by common usage; conventional; habitual. Even now I met him With customary compliment. Shak. A formal customary attendance upon the offices. South.

ially, one who inscribes a book to the favor of a patron, or to one whom he desires to compliment.

Constituting or serving as a dedication; complimental. "An epistle dedicatory." Dryden.

well. Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. Shenstone.

or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim. He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. Addison. Now thou knowest my drift. Sir W. Scott.

A wish of happiness or welfare at parting; the parting compliment; a good-by; adieu.

A letter or epistle; -- so called in civility or compliment; as, your favor of yesterday is received.

To seek to obtain by artifice, or indirectly to seek to draw forth; as, to fish for compliments. Any other fishing question. Sir W. Scott.

The act or practice of flattering; the act of pleasing by artiful commendation or compliments; adulation; false, insincere, or excessive praise. Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. Rambler. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver. Burke.

Something insipid, or not worth having; empty compliment; trash; unsubstantial talk of writing. The flummery of modern criticism. J. Morley.

r forbearance to a debtor. Abbott. -- To give the time of day, to salute one with the compliment appropriate to the hour, as "good morning." "good evening", etc. -- To give tongue, in hunter's phrase, to bark; -- said of dogs. -- To give up. (a) To abandon; to surrender. "Don't give up the ship." He has . . . given…

wishes; to salute; to hail; to welcome; to accost with friendship; to pay respects or compliments to, either personally or through the intervention of another, or by writing or token. My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet you. Shak.

Expression of kindness or joy; salutation at meeting; a compliment from one absent. Write to him . . . gentle adieus and greetings. Shak.

g; to talk fondly; to use endearments; also, to be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn. "Honeying and making love." Shak. Rough to common men, But honey at the whisper of a lord. Tennyson.

tion; to ennoble; to exalt; to glorify; hence, to do something to honor; to treat in a complimentary manner or with civility. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighten to honor. Esther vi. 9. The name of Cassius honors this corruption. Shak.

atement exaggerated fancifully, through excitement, or for effect. Our common forms of compliment are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles. Blair. Somebody has said of the boldest figure in rhetoric, the hyperbole, that it lies without deceiving. Macaulay.

Taking of leave; parting compliments. Shak.

Clumsy; awkward; unlucky; insincere; sinister; malicious; as, a left-handed compliment. The commendations of this people are not always left-handed and detractive. Landor.

A salutation or compliment of ceremony in the east by word or act; an obeisance, performed by bowing very low and placing the right palm on the forehead. [Written also salaam.]