Crossword Dictionary

praise

praise, praised, praises, praising - v 

to express approval or admiration of 

Wordplays

Synonyms

bless, carol, celebrate, emblazon, exalt, extol (also extoll), glorify, hymn, laud, magnify, resound

sentence examples

“Critics praised her as both an actor and director.”

“A good teacher praises students when they do well.”

“We praise God for your safe arrival.”

"People gather in churches to praise the Lord."

Merriam-Webster

etymology

praise (v.)

c. 1300, preisen, "to express admiration of, commend, adulate, flatter" (someone or something), from Old French preisier, variant of prisier "to praise, value," from Late Latin preciare, earlier pretiare "to price, value, prize," from Latin pretium "reward, prize, value, worth," from PIE *pret-yo-, suffixed form of *pret-, extended form of root *per- (5) "to traffic in, to sell."

Specifically with God as an object from late 14c. It replaced Old English lof, hreþ.

The earliest sense in English was the classical one, "to assess, set a price or value on" (mid-13c.); also "to prize, hold in high esteem" (late 13c.). Now a verb in most Germanic languages (German preis, Danish pris, etc.), but only in English is it differentiated in form from its doublets price and prize, which represent variants of the French word with the vowel leveled but are closer in sense to the Latin originals.