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buttered up

 - 5 dictionary results

but⋅ter

  [buht-er]
Use buttered up in a Sentence
–noun
1. the fatty portion of milk, separating as a soft whitish or yellowish solid when milk or cream is agitated or churned.
2. this substance, processed for cooking and table use.
3. any of various other soft spreads for bread: apple butter; peanut butter.
4. any of various substances of butterlike consistency, as various metallic chlorides, and certain vegetable oils solid at ordinary temperatures.
–verb (used with object)
5. to put butter on or in; spread or grease with butter.
6. to apply a liquefied bonding material to (a piece or area), as mortar to a course of bricks.
7. Metalworking. to cover (edges to be welded together) with a preliminary surface of the weld metal.
—Verb phrase
8. butter up, Informal. to flatter someone in order to gain a favor: He suspected that they were buttering him up when everyone suddenly started being nice to him.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME; OE butere < L būtȳrum < Gk boútȳron

Related forms:
but⋅ter⋅less, adjective
but⋅ter⋅like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Slang Dictionary
butter

  1. mod.
    good; really fine. : This guy Walter, he's butter, totally butter.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

butter 
O.E. butere, from a W.Gmc. source (cf. Ger. Butter, Du. boter), an early loan-word from L. butyrum "butter," from Gk. boutyron, perhaps lit. "cow-cheese," from bous "ox, cow" + tyros "cheese;" but this may be a folk-etymology of a Scythian word. The product was used from an early date in India, Iran and northern Europe, but not in ancient Greece and Rome. Herodotus described it (along with cannabis) among the oddities of the Scythians. The verb meaning "to flatter lavishly" is from 1816. Butter-fingered is attested from 1615. Deceptively named buttermilk is from 1528; it is what remains after the butter has been churned out.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: but·ter
Pronunciation: 'b&t-&r
Function: noun
1 : a solid emulsion of fat globules, air, and water made by churning milkor cream and used as food
2 : a buttery substance; especially : any of various fatty oils remaining nearly solid at ordinary temperatures
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

butter but·ter (bŭt'ər)
n.

  1. A soft yellowish or whitish emulsion of butterfat, water, air, and sometimes salt, churned from milk or cream and processed for use in cooking and as a food.

  2. A soft solid having at room temperature a consistency like that of butter.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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