Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Congratulate

Con·grat′u·late (·lāt), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Congratulated; p. pr. & vb. n. Congratulating.] [L. congratulatus, p. p. of congratulari to wish joy abundantly; con- + gratulari to wish joy, from gratus pleasing. See Grateful.] To address with expressions of sympathetic pleasure on account of some happy event affecting the person addressed; to wish joy to.

It is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection to congratulate the princess at her pavilion. Shak.

To congratulate one's self, to rejoice; to feel satisfaction; to consider one's self happy or fortunate.

Syn. — To Congratulate, Felicitate. To felicitate is simply to wish a person joy. To congratulate has the additional signification of uniting in the joy of him whom we congratulate. Hence they are by no means synonymous. One who has lost the object of his affections by her marriage to a rival, might perhaps felicitate that rival on his success, but could never be expected to congratulate him on such an event.

Felicitations are little better than compliments; congratulations are the expression of a genuine sympathy and joy. Trench.

Con·grat′u·late, v. i. To express of feel sympathetic joy; as, to congratulate with one's country. [R.] Swift.

The subjects of England may congratulate to themselves. Dryden.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.