Brownnose

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To attempt to gain favor through insincere flattery or excessive obedience to someone in authority
2. To exhibit sycophantic behavior in order to curry favor with someone influential or to promote one's own interests through excessive praise or compliance
3. To engage in servile behavior aimed at pleasing an authority figure by means of obsequious compliments or subservient actions

Etymology: The "brown" in this word is the same as the one in "brown" the colour, and the "nose" is the part of the body you would expect. The image is a scatological one: the sycophant is pictured as someone so eager to please a superior that he would put his face against the backside of the person he wants to impress. Kissing or licking the boss's rear is the act being described, and "brown" points at the faecal matter the act implies. Because the sense is crude, the word has always had a slightly comic, vulgar edge. Its meaning has stayed fixed on the same idea: a person who flatters and grovels to climb the ranks, with no real change from the original picture. The two parts are plain English words, and the compound is simply their joining into a single term of contempt for toadying.

Synonyms: fawn, flatter, ingratiate

Antonyms: criticize, disdain