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Praise definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PRAISE, n. s as z. [L. pretium.]
1. Commendation bestowed on a person for his personal virtues or worthy actions, on meritorious actions themselves, or on any thing valuable; approbation expressed in words or song. Praise may be expressed by an individual, and in this circumstance differs from fame, renown, and celebrity, which are the expression of the approbation of numbers, or public commendation. When praise is applied to the expression of public approbation, it may be synonymous with renown, or nearly so. A man may deserve the praise of an individual, or of a nation.
There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice.
2. The expression of gratitude for personal favors conferred; a glorifying or extolling.
He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise to our God. Psalms 40.
3. The object, ground or reason of praise.
He is thy praise,and he is thy God. Deutoronomy 10.
PRAISE, v.t. [L. tollo, extollo; pretium.]
1. To commend; to applaud; to express approbation of personal worth or actions.
We praise not Hector, though his name we know
Is great in arms; 'tis hard to praise a foe.
2. To extol in words or song; to magnify; to glorify on account of perfections or excellent works.
Praise him, all his angels, praise ye him, all his hosts. Psalms 148.
3. To express gratitude for personal favors. Psalms 138.
4. To do honor to; to display the excellence of.
All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord. Psalms 145.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an expression of approval and commendation; "he always appreciated praise for his work" [syn: praise, congratulations, kudos, extolment]
2: offering words of homage as an act of worship; "they sang a hymn of praise to God" v
1: express approval of; "The parents praised their children for their academic performance" [ant: criticise, criticize, knock, pick apart]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (praised; praising) Etymology: Middle English preisen, from Anglo-French preiser, priser to appraise, esteem — more at prize Date: 13th century transitive verb 1. to express a favorable judgment of ; commend 2. to glorify (a god or saint) especially by the attribution of perfections intransitive verb to express praise • praiser noun II. noun Date: 14th century 1. a. an expression of approval ; commendation b. worship 2. a. value, merit b. archaic one that is praised

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v.tr. 1 express warm approval or admiration of. 2 glorify (God) in words. --n. the act or an instance of praising; commendation (won high praise; were loud in their praises). Phrases and idioms: praise be! an exclamation of pious gratitude. sing the praises of commend (a person) highly. Derivatives: praiseful adj. praiser n. Etymology: ME f. OF preisier price, prize, praise, f. LL pretiare f. L pretium price: cf. PRIZE(1)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Praise Praise, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Praised; p. pr. & vb. n. Praising.] [OE. preisen, OF. preisier, prisier, F. priser, L. pretiare to prize, fr. pretium price. See Price, n., and cf. Appreciate, Praise, n., Prize, v.] 1. To commend; to applaud; to express approbation of; to laud; -- applied to a person or his acts. ``I praise well thy wit.'' --Chaucer. Let her own works praise her in the gates. --Prov. xxxi. 31. We praise not Hector, though his name, we know, Is great in arms; 't is hard to praise a foe. --Dryden. 2. To extol in words or song; to magnify; to glorify on account of perfections or excellent works; to do honor to; to display the excellence of; -- applied especially to the Divine Being. Praise ye him, all his angels; praise ye him, all his hosts! --Ps. cxlviii. 2. 3. To value; to appraise. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. Syn: To commend; laud; eulogize; celebrate; glorify; magnify. Usage: To Praise, Applaud, Extol. To praise is to set at high price; to applaud is to greet with clapping; to extol is to bear aloft, to exalt. We may praise in the exercise of calm judgment; we usually applaud from impulse, and on account of some specific act; we extol under the influence of high admiration, and usually in strong, if not extravagant, language.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Praise Praise, n. [OE. preis, OF. preis price, worth, value, estimation. See Praise, v., Price.] 1. Commendation for worth; approval expressed; honor rendered because of excellence or worth; laudation; approbation. There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice. --Rambler. Note: Praise may be expressed by an individual, and thus differs from fame, renown, and celebrity, which are always the expression of the approbation of numbers, or public commendation. 2. Especially, the joyful tribute of gratitude or homage rendered to the Divine Being; the act of glorifying or extolling the Creator; worship, particularly worship by song, distinction from prayer and other acts of worship; as, a service of praise. 3. The object, ground, or reason of praise. He is thy praise, and he is thy God. --Deut. x.??. Syn: Encomium; honor; eulogy; panegyric; plaudit; applause; acclaim; eclat; commendation; laudation.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(praises, praising, praised) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you praise someone or something, you express approval for their achievements or qualities. The American president praised Turkey for its courage... He praised the excellent work of the UN weapons inspectors. VERB: V n for n/-ing, V n 2. Praise is what you say or write about someone when you are praising them. All the ladies are full of praise for the staff and service they received... That is high praise indeed. = commendation 3. If you praise God, you express your respect, honour, and thanks to God. She asked the church to praise God. VERB: V n 4. Praise is the expression of respect, honour, and thanks to God. Hindus were singing hymns in praise of the god Rama. N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

praz (tehillah, "psalm," "praise," todhah, "confession" "thanksgiving," shabhach, "to praise" "glorify," zamar, yadhah, "to stretch out the hand," "confess"; aineo, epaineo, (epainos):

1. Its Meaning:

The word comes from the Latin pretium, "price," or "value," and may be defined generally as an ascription of value or worth. Praise may be bestowed upon unworthy objects or from improper motives, but true praise consists in a sincere acknowledgment of a real conviction of worth. Its type may be seen in the representation given in the Apocalypse of the adoration of God and of the Lamb, which is inspired by a sense of their worthiness to be adored (Re 4:11; 5:12).

2. With Man as Its Object:

Man may be the object of praise, and may receive it either from God or from his fellow-men. In the former case (Ro 2:29; 1Co 4:5) the praise is inevitably just, as resting on a divine estimate of worth; in the latter case its value depends upon the grounds and motives that lie behind it. There is a praise which is itself a condemnation (Lu 6:26), an honor which seals the eyes in unbelief (Joh 5:44), a careless use of the epithet "good" which is dishonoring to God (Lu 18:19). This is the "praise of men" which Jesus warned His followers to shun as being incompatible with the "praise of God" (Mt 6:1-4; compare Joh 12:43; Ga 1:10; 1Th 2:6). On the other hand, there is a praise that is the instinctive homage of the soul to righteousness (Lu 23:47), the acknowledgment given to well-doing by just government (Ro 13:3; 1Pe 2:14), the tribute of the churches to distinguished Christian service (2Co 8:18). Such praise, so far from being incompatible with the praise of God, is a reflection of it in human consciousness; and so Paul associates praise with virtue as an aid and incentive to holy living on which the mind should dwell (Php 4:8).

3. With God as Its Object:

In the Bible it is God who is especially brought before us as the object of praise. His whole creation praises Him, from the angels of heaven (Ps 103:20; Re 5:11) to those lower existences that are unconscious or even inanimate (Ps 19:1-4; 148:1-10; Re 5:13). But it is with the praises offered to God by man, and with the human duty of praising God, that the Scriptures are principally concerned. In regard to this subject the following points may be noticed:

(1) The Grounds of Praise.

Sometimes God is praised for His inherent qualities. His majesty (Ps 104:1) or holiness (Isa 6:3) fills the mind, and He is "glorified as God" (Ro 1:21) in view of what He essentially is. More frequently He is praised for His works in creation, providence, and redemption. References may be dispensed with here, for the evidence meets us on almost every page of the sacred literature from Genesis to Revelation, and the Book of Psalms in particular, from beginning to end, is occupied with these themes. When God's operations under these aspects present themselves, not simply as general effects of His power and wisdom, but as expressions of His personal love to the individual, the nation, the church, His works become benefits, and praise passes into blessing and thanksgiving (Pss 34; 103; Eph 1:3; 1Pe 1:3).

(2) The Modes of Praise.

True praise of God, as distinguished from false praise (Isa 29:13; Mt 15:8), is first of all an inward emotion--a gladness and rejoicing of the heart (Ps 4:7; 33:21), a music of the soul and spirit (Ps 103:1; Lu 1:46 f) which no language can adequately express (Ps 106:2; 2Co 9:15). But utterance is natural to strong emotion, and the mouth instinctively strives to express the praises of the heart (Ps 51:15 and passim). Many of the most moving passages in Scripture come from the inspiration of the spirit of praise awakened by the contemplation of the divine majesty or power or wisdom or kindness, but above all by the revelation of redeeming love. Again, the spirit of praise is a social spirit calling for social utterance. The man who praises God desires to praise Him in the hearing of other men (Ps 40:10), and desires also that their praises should be joined with his own (Ps 34:3). Further, the spirit of praise is a spirit of song. It may find expression in other ways--in sacrifice (Le 7:13), or testimony (Ps 66:16), or prayer (Col 1:3); but it finds its most natural and its fullest utterance in lyrical and musical forms. When God fills the heart with praise He puts a new song into the mouth (Ps 40:3). The Book of Psalms is the proof of this for the Old Testament. And when we pass to the New Testament we find that, alike for angels and men, for the church on earth and the church in heaven, the higher moods of praise express themselves in bursts of song (Lu 2:14; Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Re 5:9; 14:3; 15:3). Finally, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, the spirit of song gives birth to ordered modes of public praise. In their earlier expressions the praises of Israel were joyful outbursts in which song was mingled with shouting and dancing to a rude accompaniment of timbrels and trumpets (Ex 15:20 ff; 2Sa 6:5,14 ). In later times Israel had its sacred Psalter, its guilds of trained singers (Ezr 2:41; Ne 7:44), its skilled musicians (Pss 42; 49, etc.); and the praise that waited for God in Zion was full of the solemn beauty of holiness (Ps 29:2; 96:9). In the New Testament the Psalter is still a manual of social praise. The "hymn" which Jesus sang with His disciples after the Last Supper (Mt 26:30) would be a Hebrew psalm, probably from the Hallel (Pss 113-118) which was used at the Passover service, and various references in the Epistles point to the continued employment of the ancient psalms in Christian worship (1Co 14:26; Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Jas 5:13). But the Psalter of the Jewish church could not suffice to express the distinctive moods of Christian feeling. Original utterance of the spirit of Christian song was one of the manifestations of the gift of tongues (1Co 14:15-17). Paul distinguishes hymns and spiritual songs from psalms (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16); and it was hymns that he and Silas sang at midnight in the prison of Philippi (Ac 16:25 the Revised Version (British and American)). But from hymns and songs that were the spontaneous utterance of individual feeling the development was natural, in New Testament as in Old Testament times, to hymns that were sung in unison by a whole congregation; and in rhythmic passages like 1Ti 3:16; Re 15:3 f, we seem to have fragments of a primitive Christian hymnology, such as Pliny bears witness to for the early years of the 2nd century, when he informs Trajan that the Christians of Bithynia at their morning meetings sang a hymn in alternate strains to Christ as God (Ep. x.97).

See PERSECUTION.

(3) The Duty of Praise.

Praise is everywhere represented in the Bible as a duty no less than a natural impulse and a delight. To fail in this duty is to withhold from God's glory that belongs to Him (Ps 50:23; Ro 1:20 f); it is to shut one's eyes to the signs of His presence (Isa 40:26 ), to be forgetful of His mercies (De 6:12), and unthankful for His kindness (Lu 6:35). If we are not to fall into these sins, but are to give to God the honor and glory and gratitude we owe Him, we must earnestly cultivate the spirit and habit of praise. From holy men of old we learn that this may be done by arousing the soul from its slothfulness and sluggishness (Ps 57:8; 103:1), by fixing the heart upon God (Ps 57:7; 108:1), by meditation on His works and ways (Ps 77:11 ), by recounting His benefits (Ps 103:2), above all, for those to whom He has spoken in His Son, by dwelling upon His unspeakable gift (2Co 9:15; compare Ro 8:31, 1Joh 3:1).

See also WORSHIP.

J. C. Lambert

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Commendation, approval, approbation. See applause. 2. Eulogy, eulogium, encomium, laud, laudation, glorification, panegyric, tribute of praise. 3. Glorification, homage, worship, tribute of gratitude, exaltation, extolling, Te Deum, Laus Deo, Gloria in excelsis, Gloria, hosanna, alleluia. 4. Fame, renown, celebrity, distinction, honor, glory. 5. Merit, desert, praiseworthiness, ground for praise. II. v. a. 1. Commend, approve, approbate, applaud. 2. Extol, eulogize, panegyrize, celebrate, laud. 3. Magnify, glorify, exalt, worship, adore, bless, do homage to, do honor to.

Moby Thesaurus

acclaim, acclamation, accolade, acknowledgment, adoration, adore, adulate, adulation, aggrandize, apotheosis, apotheosize, applaud, applause, approbation, approval, approve, belaud, benediction, bepraise, bepraisement, beslobber, beslubber, blandish, blandishment, blarney, bless, bless the Lord, blow up, boast of, brag about, bunkum, cajole, cajolement, cajolery, celebrate, citation, cite, cognizance, commend, commendation, compliment, compliments, conceit, congratulation, credit, crediting, crown, crown with laurel, cry up, decorate, deification, deify, devotion, dignify, distinguish, do honor, doxologize, eloge, emblazon, encomium, endorse, endorsement, enhance, ennoble, erect, eulogium, eulogize, eulogy, exalt, exaltation, excessive praise, extol, eyewash, fair words, fawn upon, fawning, flatter, flattery, glorification, glorify, glorify the Lord, glory, grace, grease, hail, hallow, heighten, hero worship, hero-worship, homage, hommage, honeyed phrases, honeyed words, honor, honorable mention, hosanna, hymn, hymn of praise, idolatry, idolize, idolizing, incense, intensify, kudos, laud, laudation, lionize, lionizing, magnification, magnify, make fair weather, make much of, meed of praise, mention, oil, oil the tongue, ovation, overpraise, paean, palaver, panegyric, panegyrize, pay homage to, pay regard to, pay tribute, pay tribute to, plaudits, porter aux nues, praise God, prayer of thanks, pretty lies, proclaim, psalm, psalmody, puff, puff up, recognition, recommend, render honor to, resound, revere, reverence, revile, salute, sing praises, slobber over, soap, soft soap, sublime, sweet nothings, sweet talk, sweet words, sycophancy, thank offering, thank-you, thanks, thanksgiving, tribute, trumpet, uprear, venerate, veneration, wheedle, wheedling, worship