Food

Butter someone up

To be very nice to someone so that they will do something for you.

Examples

  • He's been buttering up the boss all week because he wants Friday off.
  • Stop trying to butter me up – I'm still not lending you my car.

How to use it

Informal. A noun object can go before or after "up" (butter up the boss), but a pronoun goes in the middle: butter me up.