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View synonyms for fawning

fawning

[ faw-ning ]

adjective

  1. seeking favor by flattery or a servile way of behaving:

    The billionaire’s donation earned him a fawning front-page news story in the Globe and Mail.

    This detailed and favorable book review is not a fawning endorsement, as the reviewer takes the author to task on several points.



noun

  1. the act or practice of seeking favor by flattery or a servile way of behaving:

    On the second-last night of the cruise, we witnessed the fawning of the ship’s wait staff as they jockeyed for a healthy tip.

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Other Words From

  • fawn·ing·ly adverb
  • fawn·ing·ness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of fawning1

First recorded in 1325–75; fawn 2 + -ing 2( def ) for the adjective; fawn 2 + -ing 1( def ) for the noun

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Example Sentences

My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you — just report on you.

Of course, this could be explained by the admittedly large percentage of the audience composed of fawning film students.

Sharpton, who once confessed he will never criticize the president, in his transparent fawning for access, has gotten it.

Between the Walters fawning and the Colbert debacle, Amaitis is fortunate only to be paying a record fine.

The fawning strangers ask questions like “What was it like…being shot at?”

The Guardian's Luke Harding, calling Assange a "fawning" interviewer, totally missed the point.

They all immediately got up to make room for him, and handed him a chair in a manner the most servile and fawning.

The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the Anathema Maranatha of every fawning dean.

There was nothing fawning in his attitude; he conducted himself with the dignity of a fallen monarch.

Mr. Fogg, in the presence of Julius Marston, was properly obsequious, but not a bit fawning.

Again he calls upon his fawning admirers to annihilate Christianity, to hunt it down, to vilify it, to ruin it.

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