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.
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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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While some parents are fine with sleep training methods that involve lengthy separations from their babies, and a fair amount of crying and fussing, for other parents, these methods just don’t feel right.1 That’s where gentle sleep training come into play.Wendy Wisner, Parents, 17 Sep. 2024
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Somebody's done all the worrying and fussing for you!Joe Ray, WIRED, 31 Aug. 2024
Verb
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Also in attendance: an inner-child 14-year-old version of Trump himself, who both needles and kowtows to the booming, boorish (and offstage) voice of the adult iteration.Greg Evans, Deadline, 24 Sep. 2024
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Rather than challenging that xenophobic ideology, many policy makers kowtow to it, helping to shift the political dial more to the right.Banseka Kayembe, refinery29.com, 9 Aug. 2024
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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Common symptoms of a rapid squirrel include walking in circles, falling over, drooling, aggression, and seizures and muscle spasms, Critter Control reports.Greta Cross, USA TODAY, 4 Nov. 2024
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And Terry's pitch-perfect execution had her followers drooling.Anna Lazarus Caplan, People.com, 30 Oct. 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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That’s meant eschewing traditional media interviews in favor of fawning long-form podcast conversations with laddish hosts who draw massive young male audiences, such as Theo Von, Lex Friedman, Logan Paul, the Nelk Boys, and Joe Rogan, who boasts the most popular podcast in America.Eric Cortellessa, TIME, 1 Nov. 2024
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The mercurial billionaire’s fawning support of a Republican candidate who promises to roll back environmental progress is a dilemma for a company whose core buyers identify as climate-conscious Democrats.Alan Ohnsman, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024
Articles Related to bootlick
Thesaurus Entries Near bootlick
Cite this Entry
“Bootlick.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bootlick. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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