gratulation

English edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɹætjʊˈleɪʃən/
- Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃən/
Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Hyphenation: gra‧tu‧la‧tion

gratulation (countable and uncountable, plural gratulations)

(now rare) A feeling of happiness and satisfaction; joy, especially at one's good fortune.
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 206:
  Shattuck, all unaccustomed to the practical phenomena of digging, apprehended only cause of gratulation that the investigation was to be the less hindered.
(archaic) The expression of pleasure at someone else's success or luck; congratulation.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
  all Heav’n, And happie Constellations on that houre / Shed thir selectest influence;
  the Earth Gave sign of gratulation
- 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, On the Death of John Adams, page 191:
  —The chorus fell
  In gratulation on a patriarch's ear,
  Who in the bosom of his sylvan home
  With dignity reposed.

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