suck up

See also: suckup and suck-up

Contents

EnglishEdit

VerbEdit

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

1. (transitive) To absorb (fluid).

   The dry soil sucked up water like a sponge.

2. (slang, 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.

TranslationsEdit

to absorb fluid

• French: absorber (fr)
• German: aufsaugen
• Italian: aspirare (it)
• Russian: впитывать (ru) impf (vpityvatʹ)

• Scottish Gaelic: deoghail
• Swedish: suga upp
• Telugu: పీల్చు (te) (pīlcu)
• Zulu: -munca, -munya

to adulate or flatter excessively

• Dutch: slijmen (nl)
• Finnish: imarrella (fi), nuoleskella (fi), mielistellä (fi)
• French: lécher les bottes (fr), cirer les pompes (fr)
• Polish: podlizywać się (pl)
• Portuguese: puxar saco
• Russian: подли́зываться (ru) impf (podlízyvatʹsja), подлиза́ться (ru) pf (podlizátʹsja)

• Scots: souk in wi
• Serbo-Croatian:

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

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

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

See alsoEdit

• butter up
• kiss up