Word.ws English Dictionary

licking someone's boots

licking someone's boots is the present participle and gerund of lick someone's boots.

Meaning of lick someone's boots

Verb

lick someone's boots (third-person singular simple present licks someone's boots, present participle licking someone's boots, simple past and past participle licked someone's boots)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To try hard to please someone.
    • “Far-right politicians in primaries are licking the boots of gun lobbyists,” Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts told Rolling Stone in an email on Tuesday. They’ll certainly continue to do so once in office.2022 April 13, Ryan Bort, “The Real Reason Republicans Are Loading Their 2022 Campaign Ads With Guns”, in Rolling Stone

Questions about licking someone's boots

What is licking someone's boots the present participle and gerund of?
Licking someone's boots is the present participle and gerund of lick someone's boots.

Words near licking someone's boots in the dictionary

  1. licking one's lips
  2. licking one's wounds
  3. licking out
  4. licking someone's ass
  5. licking someone's balls
  6. licking someone's boots
  7. licking the birse
  8. licking the dust
  9. licking the pants off
  10. licking up
  11. lickings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: licking someone's boots (page history and authors); lick someone's boots (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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