kiss

have kissed the blarney stone: seeblarney.

a Judas kiss: seeJudas.

kiss and make up become reconciled.

2011Daily Telegraph Ravens often squabble with each other, but they usually kiss and make up afterwards, new research suggests.

kiss and tell recount your sexual exploits, especially to the media concerning a famous person. chiefly derogatory

kiss someone's arse (or ass) behave obsequiously towards someone. vulgar slang

kiss ass behave in an obsequious or sycophantic way. North American vulgar slang

kiss my arse go away!; go to hell! vulgar slang

kiss of death an action or event that causes certain failure for an enterprise.

☞ This expression may refer to the kiss of betrayal given by Judas Iscariot to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:48–9).

2013New Statesman He ends with those words often regarded as the political kiss of death: 'Ed Balls has the full confidence of the shadow cabinet, I'm sure.'

kiss of life

1 mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

2 an action or event that revives a failing enterprise.

❷1997Anthony BarnettThis Time She gave a decrepit institution the kiss of life, when she became its adversary.

kiss the dust submit abjectly; be overthrown.

kiss the ground prostrate yourself as a token of respect.

☞ This phrase refers to the practice, found particularly in courts of the ancient Eastern world, of throwing yourself on the ground in front of a monarch.

kiss the rod accept punishment meekly or submissively.

☞ This idiom refers to a former practice of making a child kiss the rod with which it was beaten. It is used by Shakespeare in Two Gentlemen of Verona: 'How wayward is this foolish love That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse And presently all humbled kiss the rod'.

kiss something goodbye (or kiss goodbye to something) accept the certain loss of something. informal