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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Musk and his hacker minions have blown into departments, demanding access to highly sensitive data in pursuit of finding waste, fraud, and abuse—often making cuts and promoting the reductions before fully understanding what was going on.—
Philip Elliott,
Time,
2 Apr. 2025 -
Decisions made today by Trump and his minions will affect our children and our children’s children for years to come.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
19 Mar. 2025
Noun
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At-home test tackles three most common STIs Chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis are three of the most prevalent STIs in the U.S. Both chlamydia and gonorrhea are bacterial infections, while trichomoniasis is caused by a parasite.—
Mary Walrath-Holdridge,
USA Today,
28 Mar. 2025
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The tropical variety develops a parasite that can make butterflies sick and unable to reproduce.—
Madalyn Mendoza,
Axios,
21 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The wait is over for fans anticipating the beginning of Grand Slam Track.—
Katelyn Hutchison,
Forbes.com,
4 Apr. 2025
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Add Pierce Brosnan to the list of George Clooney's fans!—
Charna Flam,
People.com,
4 Apr. 2025
Noun
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As of this writing, tens of thousands of Americans in government roles have already been fired by Elon’s tech toadies.—
Kara Swisher,
The Atlantic,
9 Mar. 2025
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But at the end of the Cold War, state sponsors and their toadies lost ground.—
Audrey Kurth Cronin,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Dec. 2011
Noun
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Creating a tower of sponge with knafeh proved challenging, though.—
Claire Turrell,
Smithsonian Magazine,
4 Apr. 2025
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Sea Salt Slide Tin $6 Jacobsen Salt Co. A clean sponge Anyone else grossed out at the thought of using the mystery sponge that’s been sitting in your Airbnb’s sink for God knows how long?—
Alaina Chou,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
3 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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Heslov said that Clooney has made sure to keep his old friends close, so he isn’t surrounded by sycophants.—
Thea Traff,
New York Times,
20 Feb. 2025
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What may be worse is that a gaggle of sycophants and groupthink team members underneath the Dark Empath—the direct reports—create a ruthless echo chamber for the king or queen at the top of Mt. Stupid.—
Dan Pontefract,
Forbes,
11 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The Doom Slayer was a slave to capitalism in Doom (2016), the soft reboot that revived the franchise, and his now-origins as a slave to a religious theocracy sounds like something that could be cool as hell to explore.—
Kazuma Hashimoto,
Rolling Stone,
31 Mar. 2025
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Freelancers and side hustle professionals who understand how to scale are ultimately able to regain control of their time and not become a slave to their side hustle.—
Rachel Wells,
Forbes.com,
26 Mar. 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 16 Apr. 2025.
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