fawning 1 of 3

adjective

Definition of fawningnext
as in obsequious

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

fawning

2 of 3

noun

as in sycophancy

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

fawning

3 of 3

verb

present participle of fawn
as in fussing
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior a student who could not wait to fawn over the new teacher

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fawning
  1. obsequious
  2. sycophancy
  3. servile
  4. adoration
  5. slavish
  6. subordinate
  7. worship
  8. subservient
Adjective
  • There were cover stories on him and obsequious profiles.
    Cory Franklin, Twin Cities, 2 Jan. 2025
  • Schulz is obsequious, either chummily laughing along to whatever is being said or clearly waiting for his turn to talk.
    Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024
Definition of obsequious
Noun
  • A certain amount of sycophancy toward the more bizarre elements of the coalition is also common.
    Benjamin Mazer, The Atlantic, 25 Nov. 2024
  • Other tests showed that models can show what’s called a sycophancy bias — the tendency of an LLM to backpedal on a correct answer to please the user.
    Stephen Ornes, Quanta Magazine, 8 Nov. 2024
Definition of sycophancy
Adjective
  • His co-stars, like Will Ferrell’s savage Mugatu, Owen Wilson’s stoner hottie Hansel, and Nathan Lee Graham’s servile Todd — all so precise and well-defined in the original’s ravelike milieu — are doomed to retrace their old steps here.
    Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024
  • These officials could, in turn, redistribute some of their private goods among their own servile lieutenants, but the monarch retained ultimate power to grant or revoke their privileged status.
    Serhiy Kudelia, Foreign Affairs, 27 Feb. 2014
Definition of servile
Noun
  • Jenn Tran is shedding more light on her Dancing with the Stars partnership and adoration for Sasha Farber.
    Stephanie Wenger, People.com, 7 Jan. 2025
  • Fux highlights the construction of the diva persona and the dynamic between admiration and adoration.
    David Nikel, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
Definition of adoration
Adjective
  • Yet in Kim’s slavish dedication to the Jeju haenyeo’s testimony, many questions that arise in this setting are left unexplored.
    Geoffrey Bunting, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2024
  • By the beginning of 1956, some American communists openly blamed the poor state of their party on Moscow’s ideological inflexibility—and their own leaders’ slavish obedience to Soviet officials.
    Jeremy Friedman, Foreign Affairs, 17 July 2024
Definition of slavish
Adjective
  • To salvage the 155th Mechanized Brigade, a unit that Ukraine, France and Poland spent months and millions of dollars training and equipping, Ukrainian leaders have begun assigning its fresh but inexperienced subordinate units to the weary but experienced brigades in the Pokrovsk sector.
    David Axe, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2025
  • Despite a propaganda campaign encouraging all Americans to come together and do their part to defeat the Axis and totalitarianism, the U.S. military remained rigidly segregated with people of color subjugated into subordinate roles and Black soldiers discriminated against abroad and at home.
    Tracie Canada / Made by History, TIME, 1 Jan. 2025
Definition of subordinate
Noun
  • Our inner landscapes shifted to accommodate new forms of beauty, old forms of worship.
    hazlitt.net, hazlitt.net, 4 Jan. 2025
  • The church, a vital space for many local immigrant families, made the decision to prioritize the safety of its parishioners, as anxiety builds over potential immigration raids in places of worship.
    Dan Perry, Newsweek, 2 Jan. 2025
Definition of worship
Adjective
  • As an angry teenager who develops a passionate hatred for everything about her life, particularly her stooped, seemingly subservient mother, Inseon runs away to Seoul, falls through a snowbank into a pit, and nearly dies.
    Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 14 Jan. 2025
  • Entertainment Weekly has your exclusive look at the latest trailer (above), which reveals for the first time that Josh's girlfriend Iris (Heretic's Sophie Thatcher) is an android designed to be the perfect, subservient partner.
    Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 8 Jan. 2025
Definition of subservient
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near fawning

fawners

fawning

fawns

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Cite this Entry

“Fawning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fawning. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

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More from Merriam-Webster on fawning

Nglish: Translation of fawning for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of fawning for Arabic Speakers

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