kiss up to

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to flatter or try to win favor with someone

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

nịnh bợ hoặc cố gắng lấy lòng với ai đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to kiss in a flattering manner
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She's always kissing up to the boss to get ahead

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “kiss up to” mean?

to flatter or try to win favor with someone Literally: to kiss in a flattering manner

Is “kiss up to” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.