as in brownnoser
a person who flatters another in order to get ahead
a transparent apple-polisher whose fulsome praise fooled no one
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apple-polisher
Noun
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Small medieval villages are demolished in the wake of hell’s minions pouring forth from their dimension and into the next.—
Kazuma Hashimoto,
Rolling Stone,
31 Mar. 2025 -
At just 17 years old, Amanda Seyfried booked her breakout role in Mean Girls as Regina George’s bimbo minion who could predict the weather with her boobs.—
airmail.news,
airmail.news,
15 Mar. 2025
Noun
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In exchange, the fish will help the mussel get rid of parasites.—
Irene Wright,
Miami Herald,
21 Apr. 2025
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The parasite, named Sirenobethylus charybdis after the seawater-swallowing monster from Greek mythology, may represent a whole new family of insects.—
Paul Du Quenoy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Nacua is seen slapping the fan in the face and walking away.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
28 Apr. 2025
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Crocs Savannah Bananas Classic Clogs Savannah Bananas fans will love these Crocs that feature the team’s mascot and an eye-catching pattern in the team colors.—
Rylee Johnston,
Travel + Leisure,
27 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The anecdote illustrates the contrast in competence and grasp of real world dangers between Reagan’s team and Trump’s toadies — and also between these presidents themselves.—
George Skelton,
Los Angeles Times,
31 Mar. 2025
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His assessment is based not on the slack-jawed idolatry of elite-media toadies, but on sources nobody else thought to ring up and poke.—
Harpers Magazine,
Harpers Magazine,
26 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Never submerge in water to wash them because mushrooms absorb like a sponge and become mushy.—
Cathy Thomas,
Oc Register,
14 Apr. 2025
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In water as much as 4,200 feet deep the team from the Schmidt Ocean Institute found a surprisingly flourishing ecosystem that included icefish, giant sea spiders, octopus, corals and sponges.—
Elizabeth Weise,
USA Today,
13 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Republican lickspittles like Lindsey Graham and Jim Banks praised Trump and trashed Zelenskyy while Russian leaders rejoiced.—
Maureen Dowd,
The Mercury News,
4 Mar. 2025
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Of course, being a junior senator and attaching your name to legislation that has little chance of being enacted—none of those have bills passed—is very different from being Vice-President and chief lickspittle to Trump.—
John Cassidy,
The New Yorker,
22 July 2024
Noun
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There are still sycophants and acolytes, but no savvy producers to make his head-scratching moves appear to make sense.—
Laura Bassett,
Rolling Stone,
14 Apr. 2025
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This is the grim lesson—one that the ambitious sycophants who attach themselves to power have always been slow to learn—of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall Trilogy, a series of fat, dense novels that filter the reign of Henry VIII through the rise and fall of his Machiavellian advisor, Thomas Cromwell.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
28 Mar. 2025
Noun
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At Princeton, for example, the first nine presidents owned slaves.—
Jonathan Zimmerman,
New York Daily News,
14 Apr. 2025
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In fact, there were a number of indications that the flies, while largely driven by stereotypical responses to specific stimuli, weren't entirely slaves to instinct.—
John Timmer,
ArsTechnica,
9 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Apple-polisher.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apple-polisher. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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