At a news conference here, Mr. Quinn commended his primary challenger, Dan Hynes, the state's comptroller, for having the "heart of a lion" and sought to put the personal and sometimes nasty nature of the surprisingly tight race behind them. Source:New York Times In this sentence commended means: influence in an unfair way present as worthy of regard, kindness, or confidence be or do something to a greater degree represent a person with comic exaggeration