brown-nose
verb (used without object)
to curry favor; behave obsequiously.
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brown nose
brown nosenounvet science a form of light sensitization in cattle
brown-nose
American
[broun-nohz]
/ ˈbraʊnˌnoʊz /
verb (used without object)
brown-nosed,
brown-nosing
verb (used with object)
brown-nosed,
brown-nosing
noun
brown-nose
1
British
verb
noun
brown nose
2
British
noun
brown nose
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of brown-nose
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I don’t want to brown-nose, I just feel like I’ve proven myself as a nominee and now they see me for who I am.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2022
We’ve still got lovable Arkady - the underdog and rare example of a police investigator who refuses to brown-nose his superiors.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 4, 2019
“Those that, I guess you might say, brown-nose are the ones that are going to end up receiving the merit pay.”
From Washington Times ● Jan. 14, 2016
I decided to make a deliberate effort to brown-nose him for the next week.
From Time ● Sep. 8, 2011
Jane Hamsher described him as tough guy wannabe but really “a brown nose for power ready to rumble on behalf of the status quo.”
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2016
You get promoted if you brown nose your way.
From BusinessWeek ● Nov. 15, 2011
Billy Barton, by Huon and out of Mary le Bas, owned by Howard Bruce of Baltimore, will carry many thousands of pounds sterling on his dark brown nose.
From Time Magazine Archive
Challedon went into the lead; halfway down the backstretch Kayak caught him, poked his brown nose farther & farther ahead as they streaked along against a backdrop of autumn foliage.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yonder he is even now trotting merrily on in front of that farmer’s gig, sometimes barking with half-hysterical joy, sometimes jumping up and kissing the old mare’s soft brown nose, by way of encouraging her.
From The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer" Thirteen Hundred Miles in my Caravan by Stables, Gordon
"It is appropriate that such a monster as this should have lived on a great continent like North America," brown-nosed Sir Archibald Geikie, a geologist and fellow of the Royal Society.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 4, 2013
"It's just an honour to have my name up there with all the big champions like Wiggins," Porte brown-nosed afterwards.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 12, 2013
"Obviously the manager is extremely disciplined but the manager is also cool and he's got good banter," brown-nosed Defoe, barely even convincing himself, never mind anyone else.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 18, 2010
OK, now we’re heading into potential brown-nosing territory.
From Golf Digest ● Feb. 11, 2020
What to do about a supervisor who seems to value brown-nosing more than hard work?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 25, 2019
"Mozart in the Jungle" also depicts some of the more prosaic aspects of orchestral life — chronic financial difficulties, intractable union negotiations and the obligatory brown-nosing of wealthy patrons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2014
Seth Stevenson: He did get disproportionate blowback from his brown-nosing.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2013
Aech must have thought I was brown-nosing, because she snickered throughout my stammering monologue, but Og was very cool about it.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
