Meaning & use
fawn over someone
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Meaning
phrasephrasal verbdisapproving
to praise and flatter someone in an excessive, often insincere way, especially to gain their favor
Grammar: Takes an object after 'over': They fawned over the new manager. The object can't go between 'fawn' and 'over'.
Patterns
- fawn over someone
- fawn over something
The interns fawned over the celebrity chef all evening, hoping for a selfie.
Stop fawning over the boss — it's embarrassing.
Critics fawned over her debut novel, but I found it dull.
Common combinations
- fawn over a celebrity
- Fans fawned over the celebrity at the airport.
- constantly fawn over
- He constantly fawns over his professor to get better grades.
- fawn over someone's every word
- They fawned over his every word as if he were a prophet.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flatter
- Flatter is more general and can be sincere; fawn over suggests over-the-top, often fake admiration.
- adulate
- Adulate is more formal and intense; fawn over is more everyday and often disapproving.
- suck up to
- Suck up to is informal and blunt; fawn over is slightly more polite but still negative.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fawn over someone or fawn?
fawn over someone vs fawn
As a noun, 'fawn' is a young deer; as a verb it means to flatter excessively. The phrase 'fawn over' uses the verb.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
The correct pattern is 'fawn over someone'. The object must come after 'over', and no extra preposition is needed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fawn over someone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.