Lick Someone’s Boots

Also:
Lick someone’s ass (vulgar)
Lick someone’s arse (vulgar)

Meaning of Idiom ‘Lick Someone’s Boots’

To like someone’s boots means to be excessively servile or obsequious toward them; to do anything someone wants; to flatter someone and ingratiate oneself to gain favor. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Ayto, John. [http://amzn.to/2vdGvI7 Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms]. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,3Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.,4Jarvie, Gordon. Bloomsbury Dictionary of Idioms. London: Bloomsbury, 2009.

This idiom is similar to brown nose or suck-up. See also kiss butt.

A person who ‘licks someone’s boots’ might be called a boot-licker, ass-licker, brown-noser, or suck-up.

Examples Of Use

“I’m not going to lick anyone’s boots to get ahead. If I can’t get the job on my merits, I’d rather not have it.”

“I can’t work for him. He expects us all to lick his boots and I won’t do it.”

“He has no spine. He doesn’t care whose ass he licks to get ahead.”

“It’s disgusting watching this boot-licker act like a lap dog to this wannabe tyrant.”

Origin

This idiom has been used since the late 1500s. Its allusion is quite transparent. Shakespeare used it in The Tempest as ‘lick someone’s shoe.’

The more vulgar variations, lick someone’s arse (Britain) or ass (United States) are much more recent, dating from around 1970. 5Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.