ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsFfawning
ISEE/SSAThard
fawning
Meaning: excessively flattering or submissive to gain favor
fawning in a sentence
How fawning is used in real sentences:
The actor grew uncomfortable with the reporter's fawning compliments.
The aide's fawning manner pleased the vain governor but annoyed everyone else.
“The narrator reserved elaborate honorifics for patrons and reduced servants to labels, a fawning imbalance that exposed his hunger for powerful approval.”
— from the passage The Unsmoothed Voice
Synonyms for fawning
Other words for fawning — obsequious, servile and sycophantic — carry the same meaning.
- obsequious
- servile
- sycophantic
Antonyms of fawning
Words that mean the opposite of fawning:
- aloof
- defiant
- independent
Where it comes from
From Old English fagnian, meaning 'to rejoice or show delight.'
Memory hook
FAWNING contains FAWN: picture a timid young deer bowing for approval.