as in to curry favor
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior
a departmental supervisor who apple-polishes shamelessly whenever higher-ups are about
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apple-polish
Verb
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As Harper, from Queensland, Australia, pet Olive and stroked her face gently, her furious golden retriever, named Cub, sat upright and appeared to frown at his owner for fussing anyone other than him.—
Alyce Collins,
MSNBC Newsweek,
7 May 2025 -
Video footage of the animals shows the eagle fussing at the coyote and trying to chase it off.—
Amanda Kooser,
Forbes.com,
6 May 2025
Verb
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There’s nothing wrong with ogling a juicy rack of ribs or drooling over a hunk of brisket slowly smoking over hot coals.—
Katie Rife,
EW.com,
11 May 2025
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In the painting Meaningless, 2003, for example, the words meaningless, senseless, and irrelevant eventually give way to blather, blabber, babble, then to drivel and drool, and, finally, to blah-blah-blah.—
Jeffrey Weiss,
Artforum,
1 May 2025
Verb
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Fans and friends are fawning over the soft, warm-but-not-brassy ginger shade in her comments.—
Marci Robin,
Allure,
9 May 2025
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The 2025 Met Gala red carpet has officially closed, but we’re not done fawning over A-listers’ looks.—
Nicol Natale,
People.com,
7 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Apple-polish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apple-polish. Accessed 28 May. 2025.
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