buttering up
Laying it thick
Buttering up is flattering someone excessively, usually to gain favor or get something you want.
The image suggests making someone soft and pliable, like bread made more palatable with butter: He's been buttering up the boss all week.
The related noun is butter-up, and you can also simply butter someone up.
- flatteryExcessive insincere praise
- fawningExcessive insincere flattery
- brown-nosingObsequious flattery for favor
- sweet-talkFlatter to persuade
- sycophancyObsequious behavior toward authority
kissing up · ingratiation · currying favor · obsequiousness · sucking up · ego stroking · cajolery · wheedling · adulation · bootlicking · blandishments · apple-polishing · blowing smoke · charm offensive · compliment · playing nice · pandering · toadyism
- flatteryflatter, praise, flattery, compliment, compliments
- insincerityinsincerity, phoniness, fakeness, falseness, pretense
- sycophancyfawning, toadying, groveling, kowtowing, brown-nosing
- schmoozingschmooze, schmoozing, hobnobbing, glad-handing, mingling
- negotiationbargaining, bargain, negotiate, mediation, compromise
- persuasionpersuade, persuasion, persuasive, convince, convincing
buttering uptearing down
putting down · criticizing · insulting · berating · disparaging
buttering upantagonizing
Deliberately causing hostility
alienating · burning bridges · offending · pushing away · cold-shouldering
butter, spreading, buttery, buttered, butternut, butters, buttermilk, butterball, butterfat