Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sucking (up to)
Verb
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Ben spends the afternoon buttering up Ellie and praising her cake-icing skills, and even gives her the task of decorating the wedding cake.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2026 -
Some buttering up in your prompt can likely produce this.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
21 July 2025
Verb
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Pelley’s fawning interview with then-president Biden tells a different story.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
11 June 2026
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Along for the ride is his fawning, idiotic buddy Stevie (Steve Little).—
Jordan Hoffman,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 June 2026
Verb
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Once an engine of radical social upheaval, the Chinese Communist Party is coaxing its citizens toward conservative lifestyles in line with its traditional culture.—
Timothy Nerozzi,
The Washington Examiner,
17 Nov. 2025
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Desert plants spring back to life The burst of rain has transformed desert hillsides and neighborhoods, coaxing plants out of dormancy.—
Hayleigh Evans,
AZCentral.com,
13 Nov. 2025
Verb
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What distinguishes Camper, at least musically, is his deference to classic R&B signifiers without kowtowing to pastiche.—
Steven J. Horowitz,
Variety,
27 Apr. 2026
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After all, the series largely avoids other topical issues of modern campus life, from freedom of speech restrictions to administrators kowtowing to autocracies.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
5 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In the past, Thrash conducted the auctions by herself, cajoling regular American attendees to open their purse strings.—
Miles Socha,
Footwear News,
26 May 2026
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There will also be a familiar face cajoling and encouraging, in the background as well as on the main public stages.—
Kamal Ahmed,
Fortune,
13 May 2026
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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Brill, in his groove as another kind of wheedling Irish American observer, is now the harried camera operator apologizing for the delays.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
18 Nov. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Sucking (up to).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sucking%20%28up%20to%29. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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