APAD: Apple polishing

最西边的岛上
楼主 (文学峸)


"Apple polishing" describes the act of trying to win someone's approval and to gain favor through excessive or insincere praise and flattery.

The phrase is believed to come from the practice of schoolchildren giving teachers apples as gifts to gain favor or good grades. This practice evolved into the modern idiom.

Other terms that describe this behavior include "currying favor," "brown-nosing," "sucking up," and "toadying".

- From Google with editing
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I used the idiom in comments here before, but what triggered me to present it as APAD today was a recent commenting post in 笑坛 by 爸爸的草鞋. 

It was a true story about an office manager who tried to please the big boss by assigning a VIP toilet booth for the boss' use only.  But it backfired and created a rumor mill among the company workers, so much so that the boss ended avoiding the bathroom. 

The poor and silly office manager, an apple polisher who failed miserably. 

You can click the link below to see the story (had her permission, of course):

• 整改 (番外篇)真事儿 -爸爸的草鞋   (669 bytes) (207 reads) 06/30/2025 postreply 08:30:12

(To me, not only is the story hilarious, the writing of 草鞋美眉 in traditional Chinese style is well done, honestly )

We all may have seen similar stories at work and in life, even in the virtual world sometimes.   

Sweet talk and laying it on with a trowel to gain favor and get ahead?  Maybe, for a short while.  

But remember: you reap what you sow!

 

移花接木
a positive picking bones inside egg, Chinglish
最西边的岛上
like "I received comments of my post堪比原唱 -移花接木-"? ;-))
7
7grizzly
Some have a gift for it; some go to the ends of the earth to
7
7grizzly
stay out of the game.
最西边的岛上
;-)) it's an "art" that some can never b good @, LOL
硅谷居士
Thanks for sharing! This is a new one to me.
最西边的岛上
NP. U have seen similar behaviour in office, right?
最西边的岛上
& was being listened 27 times more than原唱? :-))))))
最西边的岛上
IMHO:best that badApples stayWhere they like2b polished :-))
硅谷居士
Yeah, I've seen quite a lot.
最西边的岛上
2 avoid becoming a laughing stock ;-))
暖冬cool夏
An ass-kisser/apple polisher is everywhere. 人性弱点,马屁不穿:)
最西边的岛上
:-)同意!(个人意见:虚荣争宠或多或少人人都有,但因此撒谎踩人不对也不好)