Definition of "gratulation"

Shattuck, all unaccustomed to the practical phenomena of digging, apprehended only cause of gratulation that the investigation was to be the less hindered.

1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 206

all Heav’n, And happie Constellations on that houre / Shed thir selectest influence;the Earth Gave sign of gratulation

1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

—The chorus fellIn gratulation on a patriarch's ear,Who in the bosom of his sylvan homeWith dignity reposed.

1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, On the Death of John Adams, page 191