Question
Updated on
6 Jun 2020
- Japanese
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English (US)
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Korean
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Simplified Chinese (China)
Question about English (US)
‘Suck up to’, ‘brown-nose’, ‘apple-polish’ and so on...
Which phrase is commonly used in daily conversation? Are these vulgar?
‘Suck up to’, ‘brown-nose’, ‘apple-polish’ and so on...
Which phrase is commonly used in daily conversation? Are these vulgar?
Which phrase is commonly used in daily conversation? Are these vulgar?
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- English (US)
I’ve personally only heard of ‘suck up to’ and haven’t really heard of the other phrases. And no, I don’t think they’re vulgar. ‘Suck up to’ means to try hard to get on a person’s good side.
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- English (US)
"Suck up to" is most common and not very vulgar.
"Kiss ass" and "brown nose" are also very common but they are vulgar. (brown nose means your nose is brown with poop from always being up someones ass, so brown nose and kiss ass are the same in meaning.)
Apple polish is not very common.
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- English (US)
- English (US)
@preciousedane It means the same thing as suck up.
It used to be somewhat common for children to bring apples for their teacher at school. The child who would bring apples the most, and polish them so they look best was usually the one who sucked up to the teacher.
So apple polish means to suck up.
People don't really bring apples for teachers anymore, and this phrase is not so common today. It is old fashioned.
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