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butter up
verb
- tr, adverb to flatter
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Idioms and Phrases
Excessively praise or flatter someone, usually to gain a favor. For example, If you butter up Dad, he'll let you borrow the car . This term transfers the oily, unctuous quality of butter to lavish praise. [c. 1700]Discover More
Example Sentences
Ye see she's dependent on Jeames, so she has to butter up at 'im.
Thereput them in that cupboard, and set the butter up here, and put the bread in this box, do you see?
I say so myself; and butter up my vanity with all the stimulating compliments I can think of.
He says it when he wants to let himself go and simply butter up a thing.
You may draw the butter up out of the well, presently, when breakfast is quite ready.
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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.
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