English [ edit ] butter up third-person singular simple present butters up present participle buttering up simple past and past participle buttered up
( transitive , figuratively , informal ) flatter , especially with the intent of personal gain .
He takes every opportunity to butter up the boss.
6 September 2013 , Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian [1] Joe Hart finished the night without a single grass stain on his kit and it was just a surprise the team did not butter up their goal difference even more once Welbeck had clipped in Lambert 's through-ball five minutes into the second half.Translations [ edit ] to flatter
Arabic: تَمَلَّقَ ( tamallaqa )
Bulgarian: лаская (bg) ( laskaja )
Catalan: afalagar (ca) , ( archaic ) fer lo bus
Chinese:
Mandarin: 討好 ／ 讨好 (zh) ( tǎohǎo ) , 奉承 (zh) ( fèngchéng ) , ( colloquial ) 拍馬屁 ／ 拍马屁 (zh) ( pāimǎpì )
Czech: mazat někomu med kolem huby
Dutch: vleien (nl)
Finnish: imarrella (fi)
French: flatter (fr) , caresser dans le sens du poil (fr)
German: Honig um den Bart schmieren schmeicheln (de)
Hebrew: הֶחְמִיא ( heẖmí )
Hindi: मक्खन लगाना( makkhan lagānā )
Interlingua: adular
Italian: lusingare (it)
Japanese: お世辞を言う ( おせじをいう, o-seji o iu ) , 諂う (ja) ( へつらう, hetsurau )
Korean: 아첨하다 (ko) ( acheom-hada )
Kyrgyz: жасакерденүү ( jasakerdenüü ) , кошаматтануу ( koşamattanuu ) , кошамат кылуу ( koşamat kıluu ) , көңүл көтөрүү ( köŋül kötörüü ) , сооротуу (ky) ( soorotuu ) , жагуу (ky) ( jaguu ) , май төшөө ( may töşöö ) , бөйпөңдөө ( böypöŋdöö )
Norwegian: smiske
Polish: słodzić (pl) impf podbijać bębenka (pl) impf podbić bębenka pf
Portuguese: bajular (pt)
Russian: льстить (ru) impf ( lʹstitʹ ) , ума́сливать (ru) n ( umáslivatʹ )
Spanish: lisonjear (es) , ( archaic ) hacer el buz ( colloquial ) hacer la pelota incensar (es)
Swedish: smöra (sv) , smickra (sv)
Telugu: పొగడు (te) ( pogaḍu ) , ఉబ్బివేయు ( ubbivēyu ) , ఉబ్బించు (te) ( ubbiñcu )
References [ edit ] “Butter up”, in BBC Learning English [2]