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butter someone up

Cultural  

  1. To praise or flatter someone excessively: “Percy was always buttering up the boss, so he was surprised when he failed to get a promotion.”

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.

After defeat by Palace on Sunday Lampard criticised his players, saying: "There is only so much you can keep trying to butter someone up to give them confidence."

From BBC

"There is only so much you can keep trying to butter someone up to give them confidence," manager Lampard said.

From BBC

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.