buttering up 1 of 2

noun

Definition of buttering upnext
as in soft soap

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

buttering up

2 of 2

verb

present participle of butter up
as in sucking (up to)
to praise too much a flunky who shamelessly butters up the boss

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for buttering up
  1. soft soap
  2. butter
  3. sweet talk
  4. endearment
  5. sycophancy
  6. applauding
Noun
  • People should wash any skin that comes into contact with the slurry with water and soft soap, before using a hand cream to avoid dryness and cracking.
    Lauren Penington, The Denver Post, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Most of the questions aimed at the ironic American director of Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas were less softballs than soft soap, with reporters as interested in Scorsese’s favorite food — his mother’s lasagna recipe — as the movies in his peerless filmography.
    Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Feb. 2024
Definition of soft soap
Noun
  • Embracing the method dressing approach, Hilton Rothschild wore a bespoke skirt suit by Rebecca Vallance in trending butter yellow to the horse racing event.
    Maggie Clancy, WWD, 5 Nov. 2024
  • To reduce saturated fat, avoid full-fat dairy and butter when cooking your oatmeal.
    Karina Tolentino, Verywell Health, 4 Nov. 2024
Definition of butter
Noun
  • From there, according to the report, the sweet talk quickly moves to messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Google Chat or Telegram.
    Sunny Nagpaul, Fortune, 23 Apr. 2024
  • Just in case that gave Reba a leg up, don't let her sweet talk you.
    Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 28 Feb. 2024
Definition of sweet talk
Noun
  • The community Elder—a term of endearment and respect conferred onto her by her community—hosts experiences centered on Aboriginal art and Dreamtime stories, local history and culture, as well as educational food talks.
    Riley Wilson, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Oct. 2024
  • It’s also not meant to be used as a term of endearment for babies, Cao notes.
    Marilyn La Jeunesse, Parents, 23 Sep. 2024
Definition of endearment
Noun
  • Other tests showed that models can show what’s called a sycophancy bias — the tendency of an LLM to backpedal on a correct answer to please the user.
    Stephen Ornes, Quanta Magazine, 8 Nov. 2024
  • Yeah, there is nothing but sycophancy and repulsing his enemies.
    Leah Feiger, WIRED, 19 Sep. 2024
Definition of sycophancy
Verb
  • Osbourne’s statement was championed in her comments section, with followers applauding her honesty.
    Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2024
  • The crowd ate it up, applauding the 44-year-old Shazam!
    Benjamin Svetkey, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Oct. 2024
Definition of applauding
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near buttering up

butteries

buttering up

butters up

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Buttering up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/buttering%20up. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.

Copy Citation

Share

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Plural and Possessive Names: A Guide

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

8 Words with Fascinating Histories

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

Birds Say the Darndest Things

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)

10 Scrabble Words Without Any Vowels
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
little chihuahua dressing like a turkey for thanksgiving
Giving Thanks Quiz Decide which words express gratitude and which gi...