butter up

1. 1.

   flatter with the intention of getting something

   Synonymsbrown-nose

   Broaderflatter

Questions about butter up

What does butter up mean?

butter up means "flatter with the intention of getting something".

What is another word for butter up?

Close synonyms include brown-nose. 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 butter up a common word?

butter up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.