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lick someone's boots

Act with extreme servility, as in This man wanted every employee to lick his boots, so he had a hard time keeping his staff. Shakespeare used this idiom in the form of lick someone's shoe in The Tempest (3:2). [Late 1500s]

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RELATED WORDS

bootlick, flatter, grovel, kowtow, sweet-talk, toady, truckle, brown-nose

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.