suck up

See also: suckup and suck-up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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Verb

suck up (third-person singular simple present sucks up, present participle sucking up, simple past and past participle sucked up)

1. (transitive) To absorb (fluid).

   The dry soil sucked up water like a sponge.

2. (slang, chiefly with "to") To adulate or flatter somebody excessively, generally to obtain some personal benefit or favour.

   Jimmy sucked up to the English teacher hoping he would get an A.

Synonyms

• brownnose

Translations

to absorb fluid

• French: absorber (fr)
• German: aufsaugen (de)
• Italian: aspirare (it)
• Russian: впитывать (ru) impf (vpityvatʹ)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Scottish Gaelic: deoghail
• Swedish: suga upp
• Telugu: పీల్చు (te) (pīlcu)
• Zulu: -munca, -munya

to adulate or flatter excessively

• Danish: fedte for
• Dutch: slijmen (nl)
• Finnish: imarrella (fi), nuoleskella (fi), mielistellä (fi)
• French: lécher les bottes (fr), cirer les pompes (fr)
• Polish: podlizywać się (pl)
• Portuguese: puxar saco
• Russian: подли́зываться (ru) impf (podlízyvatʹsja), подлиза́ться (ru) pf (podlizátʹsja)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Scots: souk in wi
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: улизивати (ulizivati), шлихтати (šlihtati), увлачити (uvlačiti)

  Latin: ulizivati (sh), šlihtati, uvlačiti (sh)

• Spanish: dar jabón
• Swedish: fjäska (sv), smöra (sv), lisma (sv), ställa sig in (hos) (sv)

See also

• butter up
• kiss up

Anagrams

• upsuck