as in to fawn
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for suck (up to)
Verb
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The flattery must forever escalate and grow more fawning, until every follower’s dignity is shorn away.—
David Brooks,
Mercury News,
24 Jan. 2026 -
The ordinary pleasures and frustrations of interdependence wither under fawning’s pathologizing scaffold.—
Katy Waldman,
New Yorker,
12 Jan. 2026
Verb
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At the White House, the unwell billionaire rambles, spews insults at those who refuse to kowtow and dozes off in meetings.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
16 Jan. 2026
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Two years ago, she got fired from her $196,551 hack sinecure at the Cannabis Control Commission for not sufficiently kowtowing to the woke mob.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
22 Nov. 2025
Verb
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What Bednar has helped coax out of the Avalanche is nothing short of remarkable.—
Corey Masisak,
Denver Post,
11 Jan. 2026
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Vrabel, who played alongside Brady for Bill Belichick before establishing himself as a coach in Tennessee, led them to a 14-3 record while coaxing a possible MVP performance out of now-sophomore QB Drake Maye.—
Hannah Keyser,
CNN Money,
10 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Her voice, languid and honeyed, can glide over sensual R&B, bouncing reggaetón, shimmering pop or nostalgic jazz.—
Isabela Raygoza,
Billboard,
16 Oct. 2025
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Those harmonies — simultaneously honeyed and gravelly, providing just enough support without overshadowing, yet so powerful and full of potential — echoes Whitten.—
Angie Martoccio,
Rolling Stone,
2 July 2024
Verb
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Some buttering up in your prompt can likely produce this.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
21 July 2025
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Enter Rutte, who knew Trump from his time as Prime Minister, and who got to work buttering up the American president.—
Tom Nagorski,
Time,
18 July 2025
Verb
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In a bid to rekindle the couple’s honeymoon phase, Yasmin troubleshoots by wheedling a chief executive role for him at payment processing company Tender (run by Max Minghella‘s inscrutable puppet-master Whitney Halberstram), and throwing her husband a lavish costume party for his 40th birthday.—
Natalie Oganesyan,
Deadline,
18 Jan. 2026
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After wheedling some cash from him, while Noon rifles through his backpack, Win convinces him to stay and teach some lessons.—
Emily McClanathan,
Chicago Tribune,
24 July 2025
Verb
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Fink cajoled CEOs onto the Congress Center’s main stage and pushed some WEF programming out into the wild.—
Liz Hoffman,
semafor.com,
22 Jan. 2026
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Europe has long underspent on defense, and where American cajoling for decades had not worked, a few face slaps succeeded.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
19 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Once, Maye idolized Cam Newton.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
26 Jan. 2026
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Her polished fashion sense, marked by sophisticated, minimalist pieces and a neutral color palette, has been idolized even decades after her death.—
Christina Perrier,
InStyle,
31 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Suck (up to).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/suck%20%28up%20to%29. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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