GRATIFICATION

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act or an instance of satisfying

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("gratification" is a kind of...):

satisfaction (act of fulfilling a desire or need or appetite)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gratification"):

satiation (the act of achieving full gratification)

head trip; self-gratification (the act of satisfying your own desires and giving yourself pleasure)

humoring; indulgence; indulging; pampering (the act of indulging or gratifying a desire)

pleasing (the act of one who pleases)

Derivation:

gratify (yield (to); give satisfaction to)

gratify (make happy or satisfied)

Sense 2

Meaning:

State of being gratified or satisfied

Example:

to my immense gratification he arrived on time

Synonyms:

gratification; satisfaction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("gratification" is a kind of...):

emotional state; spirit (the state of a person's emotions (especially with regard to pleasure or dejection))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gratification"):

quality of life (your personal satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with the cultural or intellectual conditions under which you live (as distinct from material comfort))

comfort (satisfaction or physical well-being provided by a person or thing)

Derivation:

gratify (make happy or satisfied)

Credits

Context examples:

The black-eyed girl smiled gratification and greeting, and showed signs of stopping, while her companion, arm linked in arm, giggled and likewise showed signs of halting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I cannot, therefore, allow of the departure from this place of an individual whom we mutually respect and esteem, without, my dear Sir, taking this public opportunity of thanking you, on my own behalf, and, I may undertake to add, on that of the whole of the Inhabitants of Port Middlebay, for the gratification of which you are the ministering agent.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A disorder characterized by the recurrent failure to resist the impulse to steal items of little intrinsic value; the individual experiences a rising subjective sense of tension before the theft and a sense of gratification or relief during the theft.

(Kleptomania, NCI Thesaurus)

She could tell nothing of Hartfield, in which Mrs. Weston had not a lively concern; and half an hour's uninterrupted communication of all those little matters on which the daily happiness of private life depends, was one of the first gratifications of each.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

When this information was given, and they had all taken their seats, Mr. Collins was at leisure to look around him and admire, and he was so much struck with the size and furniture of the apartment, that he declared he might almost have supposed himself in the small summer breakfast parlour at Rosings; a comparison that did not at first convey much gratification; but when Mrs. Phillips understood from him what Rosings was, and who was its proprietor—when she had listened to the description of only one of Lady Catherine's drawing-rooms, and found that the chimney-piece alone had cost eight hundred pounds, she felt all the force of the compliment, and would hardly have resented a comparison with the housekeeper's room.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

For her own gratification she could have wished that something might be acted, for she had never seen even half a play, but everything of higher consequence was against it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

For a moment the gratification was exquisite.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

They were delighted with the renovation and decorations of their rooms; with the new drapery, and fresh carpets, and rich tinted china vases: they expressed their gratification ungrudgingly.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A murmur, partly of gratification at Twenty Seven's celestial state of mind, and partly of indignation against the Contractor who had given him any cause of complaint (a note of which was immediately made by Mr. Creakle), having subsided, Twenty Seven stood in the midst of us, as if he felt himself the principal object of merit in a highly meritorious museum.