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Reader question: Please explain “butter-up” in this passage: Andre had to rush over and really butter-up her clients to keep them from being angry. One woman was so upset she had to offer her a free manicure to shut her up. My comments: It means Andre, owner of, say, a beauty parlor, had to bribe her customers with free manicures (and such like) to keep them quiet. Lest, you know, they badmouth her services in front of other customers, strangers in the street, in the newspapers or over the Internet. In other words, Andre was extra nice to them by buttering them up. Free manicures are not often offered, of course. She is, after all, in the business of making money, not providing free services to the public. Anyways, “butter up” is a phrase that originates from the dinner table. First, people simply butter up the bread by swiping butter over it to enrich its flavor. Then the term spread to other areas. And so, figuratively speaking, when you butter other people up, you flatter them. You praise them and generally be extra nice to them in order to get their help or support, or just so that they’ll like you. In the same way you butter up the bread to enrich your eating experience, you butter other people up to get something in return. In other words, you’re currying favors. Hence this term sometimes contains more or less sinister connotations, which often are implied in the situations it is used. For instance, people are often seen to butter up their clients (as described in the example from the top), their bosses (to beat another colleague, for instance, to a coveted position), government officials (in order to win a public project), voters (lest they vote for somebody else), etc and so forth. | 
