bootlicking

1. 1.

   attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery

   Synonymsfawningobsequioussycophantictoadyish

   Similarinsincere
2. 2.

   attempting to win favor by flattery

   Synonymsfawningsycophantictoadyish

   Similarservile

Questions about bootlicking

What does bootlicking mean?

bootlicking means "attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in bootlicking?

bootlicking has 3 syllables: boot-lic-king. The stress falls on "boot".

What is another word for bootlicking?

Close synonyms include fawning, obsequious, sycophantic, toadyish, fawning. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bootlicking a common word?

bootlicking is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.