as in to fuss
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior
the kind of guy who truckles to anyone who might present a lucrative opportunity
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Recent Examples of truckle
Unless Trump’s art of the deal is all about truckling to Putin.
—
Maureen Dowd, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2025
Garbarino enjoyed his time with the Southern river rats and mountain folk, and their refusal to truckle to authority delights him to this day.
—David Samuels, Town & Country, 18 Oct. 2013
During the campaign, most of Trump’s fallen rivals blasted him in exceptional terms—before truckling to support him against Hillary Clinton.
—James Fallows, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2017
Maureen Dowd, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2025
Garbarino enjoyed his time with the Southern river rats and mountain folk, and their refusal to truckle to authority delights him to this day.
—David Samuels, Town & Country, 18 Oct. 2013
During the campaign, most of Trump’s fallen rivals blasted him in exceptional terms—before truckling to support him against Hillary Clinton.
—James Fallows, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for truckle
Verb
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Williams never fussed about it, though and his relationships with many in the organization weren’t overly affected.—
Roderick Boone,
Charlotte Observer,
14 Apr. 2025
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No crying or fussing or squirming.—
Danielle Pergament,
SELF,
10 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Other sizable media companies have kowtowed to Trump in a bid to make legal pressures vanish.—
Brian Steinberg,
Variety,
22 Apr. 2025
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Xi became China’s most powerful political figure in half a century by promoting a new Chinese nationalism—not by kowtowing to anyone, least of all the president of the United States.—
Michael Schuman,
The Atlantic,
11 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Posey will be given a lot of rope, befitting a franchise icon who received almost nothing but fawning praise from the media and fan base since exploding onto the scene.—
Jerry McDonald,
Mercury News,
3 Apr. 2025
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Eve’s sis Maggie (Julianna Margulies), a novelist who dips into her personal life liberally for inspiration, bickers a lot with her judgmental but fawning husband Nick (Campbell Scott), a novelist bitten by the writer’s block.—
Randy Myers,
The Mercury News,
20 Feb. 2025
Verb
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The Empire was a sinister, one-note shadow: faceless Storm Troopers, toadying fascistic generals, a cackling emperor, and of course Darth Vader, an enigmatic demon masked and cloaked in black.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
25 Apr. 2025
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The only other psychological need that rivals his thirst for toadying is the pursuit of .—
Matt Robison,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Fair to say that the Ichiban has already accomplished its primary objective of getting moto nerds to drool over it on their phone screens – even though there is little likelihood that it will be built as it is envisioned.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
14 Feb. 2025
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Pay attention for signs of distress: panting, drooling, a high heart rate, dry nose, lethargy, or even vomiting, staggering or seizures.—
Kate Bradshaw,
The Mercury News,
3 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Truckle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/truckle. Accessed 7 May. 2025.
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