as in to curry favor
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior
a departmental supervisor who apple-polishes shamelessly whenever higher-ups are about
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apple-polish
Verb
-
Throughout the footage, Leah, from Fort Worth, Texas, can be seen fussing Lunch Box and fawning over her sweet foster pup.—
Alyce Collins,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 May 2025 -
The baby occasionally fussed, and Khalil turned around and smiled at his wife and son.—
Chloe Atkins,
NBC news,
23 May 2025
Verb
-
There’s nothing wrong with ogling a juicy rack of ribs or drooling over a hunk of brisket slowly smoking over hot coals.—
Katie Rife,
EW.com,
11 May 2025
-
In the painting Meaningless, 2003, for example, the words meaningless, senseless, and irrelevant eventually give way to blather, blabber, babble, then to drivel and drool, and, finally, to blah-blah-blah.—
Jeffrey Weiss,
Artforum,
1 May 2025
Verb
-
Jacobs’ date, Doja Cat, ran over to join the pair, upon which Erivo immediately began fawning over Doja’s sky-high shoes.—
Leigh Nordstrom,
Footwear News,
5 May 2025
-
Here was a guy who tours the world playing 120 concerts a year to fawning fans, and here was my kid, not even three, sitting front row in his home studio in Varanasi, gobsmacked by the breakneck speed at which Mishra’s fingers slid up and down the neck of his surbahar (bass sitar).—
Ashlea Halpern,
AFAR Media,
30 Apr. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Apple-polish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apple-polish. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share