APPRECIATE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Appreciate

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/əprˈiʃiˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Appreciate v. t. (past & past part. appreciated; pres. part. appreciating)

1.

To set a price or value on; to estimate justly; to value. "To appreciate the motives of their enemies."

2.

To raise the value of; to increase the market price of; opposed to depreciate. (U.S.) "Lest a sudden peace should appreciate the money."

3.

To be sensible of; to distinguish. "To test the power of bees to appreciate color."

Synonyms: To Appreciate, Estimate, Esteem. Estimate is an act of judgment; esteem is an act of valuing or prizing, and when applied to individuals, denotes a sentiment of moral approbation. See Estimate. Appreciate lies between the two. As compared with estimate, it supposes a union of sensibility with judgment, producing a nice and delicate perception. As compared with esteem, it denotes a valuation of things according to their appropriate and distinctive excellence, and not simply their moral worth. Thus, with reference to the former of these (delicate perception), an able writer says. "Women have a truer appreciation of character than men;" and another remarks, "It is difficult to appreciate the true force and distinctive sense of terms which we are every day using." So, also, we speak of the difference between two things, as sometimes hardly appreciable. With reference to the latter of these (that of valuation as the result of a nice perception), we say, "It requires a peculiar cast of character to appreciate the poetry of Wordsworth;" "He who has no delicacy himself, can not appreciate it in others;" "The thought of death is salutary, because it leads us to appreciate worldly things aright." Appreciate is much used in cases where something is in danger of being overlooked or undervalued; as when we speak of appreciating the difficulties of a subject, or the risk of an undertaking. So Lord Plunket, referring to an "ominous silence" which prevailed among the Irish peasantry, says, "If you knew how to appreciate that silence, it is more formidable than the most clamorous opposition." In like manner, a person who asks some favor of another is apt to say, "I trust you will appreciate my motives in this request." Here we have the key to a very frequent use of the word. It is hardly necessary to say that appreciate looks on the favorable side of things. we never speak of appreciating a man's faults, but his merits. This idea of regarding things favorably appears more fully in the word appreciative; as when we speak of an appreciative audience, or an appreciative review, meaning one that manifests a quick perception and a ready valuation of excellence.

Appreciate v. i. To rise in value. (See note under Rise, v. i.)

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Etymology of 'Appreciate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Appreciate" Quotes from Famous Books

... his kindness. She had learned to appreciate and value a word of sympathy or encouragement. Poor child! she received few ...

— Clemence - The Schoolmistress of Waveland • Retta Babcock

... license of the King; which the King granted him, and therewith gave him one of the best and finest mules that was ever ridden, a gift which Messer Ruggieri, as he had a long journey to make, did not a little appreciate. The King then bade one of his discreet domestics contrive, as best he might, to ride with Messer Ruggieri on such wise that it might not appear that he did so by the King's command, and charge his ...

— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... well-bred ladies, who can look at you until you are obliged to look away, contradict you flatly, and say the most grossly impertinent things in the mildest voice and choicest words. A woman of the world, without nobility enough to appreciate a magnanimous thought or action, and with very narrow, shallow views of everything about her, she had still some agreeable traits of character,—much shrewd knowledge of the world, as she saw it, some taste for ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... unavailing. The babe sickened, wasted away, and died in less than two months after its birth. There was great and genuine sorrow among the serfs of Kinesma. Each had received a shining ruble of silver at the christening; and, moreover, they were now beginning to appreciate the milder regime of their lord, which this blow might suddenly terminate. Sorrow, in such natures as his, exasperates instead of chastening: they knew him well enough to recognize ...

— Beauty and The Beast, and Tales From Home • Bayard Taylor

... is their insistence that the noblest virtues, if displayed by those who reject their pitiable formulae, are, as their pet phrase goes, "splendid sins." But there is, perhaps, one step lower; and that is that men, who profess freedom of thought, should fail to see and [192] appreciate that large soul of goodness which often animates even the fanatical adherents of such tenets. I am sorry for any man who can read the epistles to the Galatians and the Corinthians without yielding a large meed of admiration to the fervent humanity of Paul of Tarsus; who can study ...

— Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

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