Word.ws English Dictionary

kissing up

kissing up is the present participle and gerund 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 kissing up

What is kissing up the present participle and gerund of?
Kissing up is the present participle and gerund of kiss up.

Words near kissing up in the dictionary

  1. kissing the dust
  2. kissing the gunner's daughter
  3. kissing the hem of someone's garment
  4. kissing the ring
  5. kissing the rod
  6. kissing up
  7. kissing up to
  8. kissing-bunch
  9. kissing-bunches
  10. kissing-crust
  11. Kissinger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kissing 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: “kissing up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kissing_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.