suck up

See also suckup, and suck-up

English

Verb

suck up (third-person singular simple present sucks up, present participle sucking up, simple past and past participle sucked up)

1. To absorb fluid

   The dry soil sucked up water like a sponge.

2. (idiomatic, chiefly with "to") To adulate or flatter somebody excessively, generally to obtain some personal benefit or favour.

   Jimmy sucked up to the English teacher hoping he would get an A.

Translations

to absorb fluid

• French: absorber (fr)
• German: aufsaugen (de)
• Italian: aspirare (it)

• Scottish Gaelic: deoghail (gd)
• Swedish: suga upp (sv)
• Zulu: -munca (zu), -munya (zu)

to adulate or flatter excessively

• Finnish: imarrella (fi), paijata (fi), mielistellä (fi)
• French: lécher les bottes (fr), cirer les pompes (fr)
• Russian: подлизываться (ru) (podlízyvat'sja) impf., подлизаться (ru) (podlizát'sja) pf.
• Scots: souk in wi

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: улизивати (sh) (ulizivati), шлихтати (sh) (šlihtati), увлачити (sh) (uvlačiti)

  Latin: ulizivati (sh), šlihtati (sh), uvlačiti (sh)

• Swedish: fjäska (sv), smöra (sv), lisma (sv), ställa sig in (hos) (sv)

See also

• butter up
• kiss up