Word.ws English Dictionary

suck-up

/ˈsʌkˌʌp/

suck-up noun: a person who sucks up, or plays up through adulation or flattery or other such devices to win another's favour; a brown-noser.

Noun

suck-up (plural suck-ups)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A person who sucks up, or plays up through adulation or flattery or other such devices to win another's favour; a brown-noser.
    • Dulcie was already holding Lidiaʼs hand, and she didnʼt even know her! What a suck-up.2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 139

Synonyms of suck-up

Forms of suck-up

pluralsuck-ups
alternative formsuckup

Origin of suck-up

Deverbal from suck up.

Questions about suck-up

What does suck-up mean?
Suck-up means a person who sucks up, or plays up through adulation or flattery or other such devices to win another's favour; a brown-noser.
What part of speech is suck-up?
Suck-up is a noun.
How do you pronounce suck-up?
Suck-up is pronounced /ˈsʌkˌʌp/.
What is the plural of suck-up?
The plural of suck-up is suck-ups.

Words near suck-up in the dictionary

  1. suck-out
  2. suck-outs
  3. suck-pint
  4. suck-pints
  5. suck-suck
  6. suck-up
  7. suck-ups
  8. sucka
  9. Suckabee
  10. suckability
  11. suckable

Source and license

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