as in to fuss
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior
the kind of office in which people feel they have to bootlick in order to get ahead
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Recent Examples of bootlick
Those who delay this fate the longest are bootlicking mediocrities — the survival of the sycophants.
—
Michael Gerson, Anchorage Daily News, 18 Mar. 2018
Michael Gerson, Anchorage Daily News, 18 Mar. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bootlick
Verb
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The world saw this five-man group as an ideal of friendship, a community working and living together, fussing and fighting but making rough beauty out of it.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
21 Jan. 2025
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Palmieri also has a 16-team no-trade list but, like Nelson, certainly should not be fussed about being moved to a Cup contender for a few months.—
Arthur Staple,
The Athletic,
16 Jan. 2025
Verb
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So a Muslim in a hijab attacks a trans performer who identifies as a woman yet doesn’t kowtow to all the liberal pieties.—
Armond White,
National Review,
5 Feb. 2025
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The Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has had to weather the defections of prominent staffers after the outlet has appeared to kowtow to Trump.—
Brian Steinberg,
Variety,
28 Jan. 2025
Verb
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Hamlet’s toadying friends, the hangers-on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are Izzard’s own talking hands, popping up to face her like a pair of Muppets.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
11 Feb. 2024
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This is the aspect of his production that made his reputation but is sometimes denigrated as superficial and toadying.—
Sebastian Smee,
Washington Post,
20 Nov. 2023
Verb
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And more than 130 people said their therapist fell asleep during therapy — sometimes going so far as to start drooling or snoring.—
Christina Caron,
New York Times,
20 Feb. 2025
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Art Deco is enticing in art and in theaters, not so much in a home with drooling pets and messy toddlers.—
Amanda Lauren,
Forbes,
19 Dec. 2024
Verb
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Garbarino enjoyed his time with the Southern river rats and mountain folk, and their refusal to truckle to authority delights him to this day.—
David Samuels,
Town & Country,
18 Oct. 2013
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During the campaign, most of Trump’s fallen rivals blasted him in exceptional terms—before truckling to support him against Hillary Clinton.—
James Fallows,
The Atlantic,
8 Oct. 2017
Verb
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But what does our contemporary obsession — both spiteful and fawning — with Brutalism say about our wants and needs as a society at this moment?—
Anna Kodé,
New York Times,
22 Feb. 2025
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Throughout the interview, Hannity was friendly and his questions were mostly fawning.—
Will Weissert,
The Denver Post,
19 Feb. 2025
Articles Related to bootlick
Cite this Entry
“Bootlick.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bootlick. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.
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