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I have been looking for single word that can be used in place of "fawn over"

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    Do you mean as an action (flatter, brown-nose), or an attitude (worship, idolise)? Aug 28, 2014 at 12:48
  • What words in a thesaurus were not the right ones?
    – Mitch
    Aug 28, 2014 at 13:02
  • It occurs to me - does "fawn over" only mean "suck up to" or can it mean "fuss over (for example) a sick child.."
    – Fattie
    Aug 28, 2014 at 13:15
  • @Joe: I don't think it would normally be "standard" to use fawn to mean fuss in such contexts, but the actual meanings might easily overlap indistinguishably if you were talking about a stereotypical retired Hollywood actress fawning/fussing over her yappy toy dog carried around in a handbag. Aug 28, 2014 at 13:28

3 Answers 3

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I dote on Sally.

to bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually (usually followed by on or upon):

Dictionary.Com

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Anything from bootlicking to over-complimenting, flattering, blandishing, worshipping, etc. (I like the verb to blandish).

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There's also crawl.

Informal: behave obsequiously or ingratiatingly in the hope of gaining someone's favour. "a reporter's job can involve crawling to objectionable people"
synonyms: grovel to, be obsequious towards, ingratiate oneself with, be servile towards, be sycophantic towards, kowtow to, pander to, abase oneself to, demean oneself to, bow and scrape to, prostrate oneself before, toady to, truckle to, dance attendance on, fawn on/over, curry favour with, cultivate, seek the favour of, try to win over, try to get on the good side of, make up to, play up to;
informal: suck up to, lick someone's boots, creep to, be all over, fall all over, rub up the right way, keep someone sweet, sweet-talk, soft-soap, butter up, twist someone's arm; brown-nose; vulgar slanglick/kiss someone's arse;archaic blandish

This seems to be BrEng, it's not in Merriam-Webster

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