ego stroking
Feeding someone's pride
Ego stroking is flattering someone to make them feel important or validated, often with ulterior motives.
The image is of petting someone's self-regard the way you'd stroke a cat: He's just ego stroking the boss to get promoted.
The related noun ego stroke is a compliment or gesture that gratifies vanity: She needed an ego stroke after the rejection.
- flatteryExcessive insincere praise
- blowing smokeDeceiving with empty words
- vanityExcessive pride in oneself
- complimentsExpressions of admiration
- pat on the backGesture showing approval
praise · fishing for compliments · admiration · sycophant · yes man · sucking up · bootlicking · preening · narcissism · full of oneself · validation · fawning · buttering up · self-importance · big head · swelled head · pandering · gushing
- flatteryflatter, praise, flattery, compliment, compliments
- sycophancyfawning, toadying, groveling, kowtowing, brown-nosing
- persuasionpersuade, persuasion, persuasive, convince, convincing
- manipulationgaslighting, guilt tripping, blame-shifting, brainwashing, guilt trip
ego strokinghumiliation
Loss of dignity
put-down · belittling · denigration · cutting down to size · taking down a peg
ego strokingconstructive criticism
Fault-finding aimed at improvement
brutal honesty · straight talk · telling it like it is · unvarnished truth · tough love
ego strokinghumbling
Diminishing one's pride
bringing down a peg · grounding · disillusionment · sobering · cold water
stroking, egos, egoist, egoism, egoistic, egotist, egotism, egotistical, egocentric