Word.ws English Dictionary

kisses up

kisses up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of kiss up.

Meaning of kiss up

Verb

kiss up (third-person singular simple present kisses up, present participle kissing up, simple past and past participle kissed up)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To pay false flattery to another, particularly a superior at work, in order to get special attention.
    • Yes, I watched Joe kissing up the boss and was very annoyed when he got my promotion!
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To pay false flattery.
    • He kisses up more than he works.

Questions about kisses up

What is kisses up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Kisses up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of kiss up.

Words near kisses up in the dictionary

  1. kisses the dust
  2. kisses the gunner's daughter
  3. kisses the hem of someone's garment
  4. kisses the ring
  5. kisses the rod
  6. kisses up
  7. kisses up to
  8. kissest
  9. kisseth
  10. kissfest
  11. kissfests

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kisses up (page history and authors); kiss 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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Cite this entry: “kisses up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kisses_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.