apple-polish

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The Word of the Day for May 6 is: 

apple-polish   \AP-ul-pah-lish\   verb
    *1: to attempt to ingratiate oneself : toady 
     2: to curry favor with (as by flattery)

Example sentence:
     Edna really wanted the internship working with the professor over the 
summer, so she took his course and apple-polished a bit.

Did you know?
     It began innocently enough -- a shiny apple for the teacher, a young 
student's gift (OK, bribe) given in the hope that classroom high jinks would be 
forgotten or forgiven. The college students of the 1920s tried a more 
sophisticated version of the trick, polishing professorial egos with 
compliments in the hopes of getting a better grade. Because of its similarity 
to the "apple for the teacher" practice, college students dubbed that 
grade-enhancement strategy "apple-polishing." But the idea quickly lost its 
luster and by 1935 the verb "apple-polish" had picked up negative connotations. 
Nowadays, the apple-polisher (academic or otherwise) is viewed in the same 
much-maligned class as the toady, sycophant, and bootlicker.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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