buttering up
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Before Musk decided to exit OpenAI, Brockman described his attempts to gain more control over the company, an effort that included "buttering up" Brockman and another co-founder, Ilya Sutskever.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
Besides, Colby has long displayed a knack for buttering up his superiors.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2025
The series opens with an epigraph from Nietzsche—“Without music, life would be a mistake”—and soon finds Cornelius buttering up his talent with monumental slabs of creamy fat.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 5, 2019
Mall operators are responding in part by upgrading their food game and buttering up desirable restaurateurs with the favorable rent and other concessions that used to go to department stores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2017
Not often does one advance so at an early age—” Gunnar seemed to be buttering up the man for some reason or other so Jack Odin decided to go along.
From Hunters Out of Space by Joseph Everidge Kelleam
