brownnose
brownnose noun: one who sucks up; a bootlicker or sycophant.
Noun
brownnose (plural brownnoses)
- One who sucks up; a bootlicker or sycophant.
- A workmate reported the matter, "which is why the worker threatened to beat up the latter," calling him a "brownnose" and threatening to "wipe the floor with him."1997, Ulrich Herbert, Hitler's foreign workers: enforced foreign labor in Germany under the Third Reich, Cambridge University Press, page 126
- 'I know, he's a natural brownnose. I guess he does have some talents.'2007, Felicity Young, An Easeful Death, Fremantle Press, page 13
- Synonyms:
- bootlick, brown noser, adulator, apple polisher, arse-kisser, arse-licker, ass-kisser, ass-licker, bootlicker, buttkisser
Verb
brownnose (third-person singular simple present brownnoses, present participle brownnosing, simple past and past participle brownnosed)
brownnose meaning in Indonesian and Myanmar
brownnose in Indonesian
- one who brownnoses
- penjilat
- to flatter in obsequious manner
- peres
brownnose in Myanmar
- one who brownnoses
- ဖော်လံဖား hpaulamhpa:, ဖား hpa:, ဘောမ bhau:ma.
Synonyms of brownnose
- bootlick
- brown noser
- adulator
- apple polisher
- arse-kisser
- arse-licker
- ass-kisser
- ass-licker
- bootlicker
- buttkisser
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of brownnose
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | brownnoses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | brownnoses |
| present participle | brownnosing |
| past participle | brownnosed |
| past | brownnosed |
Origin of brownnose
From brown (“a scatological reference”) + nose.
Questions about brownnose
- What does brownnose mean?
- Brownnose means one who sucks up; a bootlicker or sycophant.
- What is brownnose in Indonesian?
- Brownnose in Indonesian is penjilat, peres. See Brownnose meaning in Indonesian.
- What part of speech is brownnose?
- Brownnose can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of brownnose?
- The plural of brownnose is brownnoses.
Words near brownnose in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: brownnose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-brownnose.ogg.
Cite this entry: “brownnose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brownnose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.