brown nosing
Excessive insincere praise
Brown nosing is excessive flattery or fawning behavior toward someone in authority, motivated by self-interest rather than genuine admiration.
The image suggests putting one's nose where it doesn't belong—specifically, up someone's backside.
A brown noser seeks favor through obsequious attention: He got the promotion through brown nosing, not merit.
Also spelled as one word or hyphenated.
- sycophantServile praise-giver
- bootlickerServile flatterer of superiors
- flatteryExcessive insincere praise
- kiss-upFawning flatterer for gain
- sucking upObsequious behavior toward superiors
toady · fawning · obsequious · suck-up · ass kisser · apple-polishing · groveling · ingratiating · buttering up · currying favor · schmoozing · yes-man · servile · pandering · teacher's pet · kowtowing · office politics · unctuous
- bad behaviorcheating, stealing, lying, greed, selfishness
- flatteryflatter, praise, flattery, compliment, compliments
- conformityconformity, conforming, conform, conformist, conformism
- persuasionpersuade, persuasion, persuasive, convince, convincing
- social conformityconformist, peer pressure, herd mentality, groupthink, follow the crowd
- Social Pretensepretense, facade, affectation, phoniness, insincerity
brown nosingdefiance
Open resistance to authority
insubordination · rebellion · dissent · resistance · talking back
brown nosingauthenticity
Quality of being genuine
integrity · self-respect · straight shooting · candor · telling it like it is
brown, nose, browns, browned, browning, brownish, nosing, nosy