blarney
pronunciation
How to pronounce blarney in British English:
UK [ˈblɑ:ni]
How to pronounce blarney in American English:
US [ˈblɑrni]
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- Noun:
- flattery designed to gain favor
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- Verb:
- influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
Word Origin
- blarney (n.)
- 1796, from Blarney Stone (which is said to make a persuasive flatterer of any who kiss it), in a castle near Cork, Ireland. As Bartlett explains it, the reason is the difficulty of the feat of kissing the stone where it sits high up in the battlement: "to have ascended it, was proof of perseverence, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honor who never achieved the adventure." So to have kissed the Blarney Stone came to mean "to tell wonderful tales" ["Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]. The word reached wide currency through Lady Blarney, the smooth-talking flatterer in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" (1766). As a verb from 1803.
Example
- 1. Kiss the blarney stone in ireland .
- 2. The origins of the blarney stone 's magical properties aren 't clear .
- 3. But my mom once kissed the blarney stone .
- 4. Try kissing the blarney stone .
- 5. You are so full of compliments today that you must have kissed the blarney stone .