pander
/ˈpandə
/verb [no object] (pander to)
Gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire or taste or a person with such a desire or taste): newspapers are pandering to people’s baser instincts...
- So are cable news executives just pandering to the popular taste in order to get a bigger rating?
- She tries to hold on to as much genuine stuff as she can while pandering to fancier tastes.
- This low price should ensure a high take-up, pandering to people's desire to look good and not worry about a comfortable ride.
Synonyms
indulge, gratify, satisfy, cater to, give in to, fulfil, yield to, bow to, humour, please, accommodate, comply with, go along with
noun
1 dated A pimp.Fiesta also means ‘party’ in Spanish, and Trujillo's panders always tell the girls they are invited to a party....
- On her arrival in London the country wench of Michaelmas Term is immediately given the advice by her pander that ‘Virginity is no city trade’.
- Figures representing the other three terms (Trinity, Hilary and Easter) enter, leading a ‘poor’ man who is made ‘rich’ as they present him with rich apparel, a page and a pander.
1.1 archaic A person who assists the immoral desires or evil designs of others: the lowest panders of a venal press...
- Milton had no doubt that God, Divine Providence and History itself had willed that the saints prevail over the King and his Anglicans, panders and sycophants.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a noun): from Pandare, the name of a character in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (see Pandarus). The verb dates from the early 17th century.
The early use of pander was from Pandare, the name of a character in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde who acted as a lovers' go-between. Chaucer took the story from the 14th-century Italian writer Boccaccio. The sense ‘to indulge’ does not appear until the 19th century.