as in obsequious
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as in sycophancy
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Dissimilar Words
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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of fawning
Sarah Scott, Parents, 25 Aug. 2025
Malia Mendez, Twin Cities, 4 Jan. 2026
Cut to Yerin Ha’s Sophie Baek, the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, fawning over the idea of attending a ball.
—Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 25 Dec. 2025
Ebeling and Alvarez continued to shoot projects together and frequently sent each other mutually fawning messages.
—E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
Instead of supporting allies in NATO and Ukraine against aggressive Russian territorial expansion, the United States has proposed drastic cuts to defensive military support measures and played fawning host to Vladimir Putin.
—Time, 28 Oct. 2025
But there were – among the fawning compliments and the conviction an elusive peace was near – bits of good news for Ukraine.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 18 Oct. 2025
But on the scoreboard and perhaps in the eyes of football fans and perhaps even the still-fawning North Carolina administration?
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025
Since his birth in 2014, photos and videos of Denny have been shared on social media, with users often fawning over him and calling him sweet.
—Saleen Martin, USA Today, 14 Oct. 2025
Social media, then, too, was flooded with morally bankrupt leftists lauding the killing and fawning over the killer.
—The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 14 Sep. 2025
Noun
According to Gaiani, drinking or using drugs before social situations is a major sign that your teen may be using alcohol to cope with fawning and to feel more comfortable or confident.
—Verb
The culprits were Gen Zers fawning over how cute cozy Snoopy was, often on social media.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for fawning
Adjective
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Carol, a reclusive and disgruntled bestselling romantasy author, exhorts her reticent audience of five immune English speakers to reclaim human agency against the milquetoast, obsequious blob and join her in a quest to reverse the happiness apocalypse.—
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Might the show — with its army of all-knowing, obsequious entities consuming humanity — be a metaphor for the dangers of artificial intelligence?—
Noun
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But while sycophancy is a symptom of user-model interaction, communication bias runs deeper.—
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Advertisement The increasingly impactful capabilities and misalignment of these models have also had concerning social repercussions, notably due to models’ sycophancy, which can lead to users forming strong emotional attachments.—
Verb
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As the migrants boarded, a man hoisted one of the passengers in the air, a fussing 8-month-old baby whose face was flushed red from the heat.—
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With five blades sandwiched between two moisturizing bars, this razor speeds up the entire process (no fussing around with shaving cream), nourishing dry skin and making nicks a rare occurrence.—
Adjective
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After all, the deal — for a long-forsaken project, an action-comedy franchise starring two aging stars — underscores the servile fealty of new Paramount owners Larry and David Ellison amid their recent maneuvering to take control of TikTok and Warner Bros. Discovery (the latter seemingly futile).—
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Earlier this year, my colleague and bud Kelefa Sanneh suggested that music critics, as a lot, have gone soft—becoming submissive, overly agreeable, and, in some cases, nearly servile.—
Noun
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In reality, Lawrence and Stone are longtime friends (and future collaborators) who haven't been shy about voicing their adoration for one another.—
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Jerry adoration of football is well documented, almost as much as his first true love — money.—
Verb
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CWD can take months to years for symptoms to appear, which could include drastic weight loss, stumbling or lack of coordination, drooling and listlessness.—
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Naturally, the post attracted over 16,000 comments of women drooling over him.—
Adjective
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People who climb upward by sacrificing their integrity to slavish subservience almost always fall on their faces eventually.—
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The film’s slavish dedication to its source material — the challenging of which would open its own can of worms — demands ignoring all potential complexity in favor of didactic conclusions.—
Adjective
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The inspector general's investigation found that Reece and Ruff — who were supervisor and subordinate — did not disclose their romantic relationship, which is a violation of a city executive order.—
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Santa’s elves are subordinate Clauses.—
Cite this Entry
“Fawning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fawning. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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