ingratiate

Etymology

First attested in 1622. From Italian ingraziare or Medieval Latin *ingratiatus, from Latin in grātiam (“for the favor of”).

verb

1. (reflexive) To bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please him or her.
   [H]e would pat the children on the head when he saw them on the stairs, and ingratiate himself with them as far as he dared. 1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 58, in The Way of All Flesh
   And it is symptomatic of the many paradoxes of Lederer's life that of all the people in the room, Brotherhood is the one whom he would most wish to serve, if ever he had the opportunity, even though — or perhaps because — his occasional efforts to ingratiate himself with his adopted hero have met with iron rebuff. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
   He ingratiated himself with the Kurdish bloc when he stood up to aggressive Turkish rhetoric about the Kurdish border in May. July 9 2007, Brian T. Bennett, “Why Maliki Is Still Around”, in Time, retrieved 2014-05-26
2. (followed by to) To recommend; to render easy or agreeable.
   What difficulty would it [the love of Christ] not ingratiate to us? c. 1650, Henry Hammond, "Sermon XIII" in Miscellaneous Theological Works of Henry Hammond, Volume 3 (1850 edition), p. 283 (Google preview)
   the Sense of this will mightily indear and ingratiate them to us 1686, John Scott, The Christian Life[…]