These words refer to seeking approval from others by praising them or behaving towards them in an obsequious or servile manner. Fawn can literally indicate the affectionate action of a dog towards his master, exhibited by licking him and sprawling before him, by tail-wagging and other forms of adoring behaviour. Servile behaviour of a comparable sort is suggested when a person acts in this way, although here the word becomes contemptuous, whether or not the obsequious display is sincere or undertaken cynically for self-advancement.

• Only an uxorious husband could fawn on a woman the way he does; She fawned over her famous guests, but sneered at them when they were gone.

Truckle , crawl and toady are harsher in their contempt than fawn , although less vivid and specific about the behaviour they point to. Truckle is very rare but once indicated any sort of servility, whether exhibited because of necessity, cowardice or self-interested obsequiousness: slaves who had to truckle to their harsh masters or be killed for insolence. Toady and crawl give no visual suggestions whatsoever about manner or bearing, but do specifically suggest the attempt to curry favour with one’s superiors by ingratiating behaviour: an actress who needed an entourage of lickspittles and lackeys to toady to her; the contemptible way in which he openly crawls to the boss. Crawl is becoming more common than toady and involves a wider range of ingratiating activity, including speech as well as actions.

The remaining words all emphasize verbal praise as the means of gaining approval. Of all these words, compliment alone can be used approvingly; the word can even indicate genuine admiration expressed for no ulterior motive: a teacher who was as ready to compliment deserving effort as she was to criticize slipshod work. But the word often applies to praise given insincerely as an empty formality or as a self-interested gesture; in this case, the tone of disapproval is much milder than that of any other word here.

• He complimented her on her new dress without even looking at it; She refused to complimented the fatuous critic merely to win his approval.

Flatter concentrates exclusively on the paying of insincere compliments for whatever reason: She thought it could do no harm to flatter her escort a bit, at least on his tasted in wines; a film producer who expected to be flattered by the ambitious underlings who surrounded him. Sometimes the word can indicate a surprising but genuine interest that is taken by the recipient as a not wholly deserved honor: She flattered us by coming early and staying late; flattered by the sincerity of his concern for her.

Butter up is an informal phrase that suggests not only the obsequious behaviour of fawn , toady and crawl but also the insincere praise indicated by flatter . The word adds to these implications completely cynical attitude behind the ingratiation acts and words and even a disrespectful or contemptuous attitude towards the person being courted: drop-outs who claim to detest their middle-class parents but know how to butter them up when the need arises.