butter up

British  

verb

1. (tr, adverb) to flatter

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butter up Idioms  

1. 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]

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Example Sentences

A UK attempt to butter up the French leader, perhaps?

From BBC • May 17, 2025

At the center: six cinnamon rolls that a candidate alleged had been used to butter up voters during the tight mayoral race in October.

From Washington Post • Jan. 19, 2023

To get ahead, you can make the marinara base and roasted garlic butter up to a couple days before.

From Seattle Times • May 8, 2022

The company’s prepaid Connect plans launched in 2020 and were part of T-Mobile’s efforts to butter up regulators to allow its massive merger with Sprint to go through.

From The Verge • Mar. 21, 2022

Trujillo had announced we were going to have a free country—just like the Yanquis he was trying to butter up.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez