Word.ws English Dictionary

buttering up

buttering up is the present participle and gerund of butter up.

Meaning of butter up

Verb

butter up (third-person singular simple present butters up, present participle buttering up, simple past and past participle buttered up)

  1. (figuratively, informal, transitive) To flatter, especially with the intent of personal gain.
    • He takes every opportunity to butter up the boss.

Questions about buttering up

What is buttering up the present participle and gerund of?
Buttering up is the present participle and gerund of butter up.

Words near buttering up in the dictionary

  1. buttering down
  2. buttering one's bread on both sides
  3. buttering out
  4. buttering someone's biscuit
  5. buttering the cony
  6. buttering up
  7. butterings
  8. butterinski
  9. butterinskies
  10. butterinskis
  11. butterinsky

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: buttering up (page history and authors); butter up (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.

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