Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.
- v. To engage in schmoozing with: "how to be a professional artist—how to be a businessperson, how to schmooze the collectors” ( Paige Powell).
- n. The act or an instance of schmoozing.
Wiktionary
- v. To talk casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection
- n. A casual conversation, especially one held in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an informal conversation
- v. talk idly or casually and in a friendly way
Etymologies
- From Yiddish שמועס (shmues). (Wiktionary)
- Yiddish shmuesn, possibly from shmues, a chat, pl. of shmue, rumor, Hebrew šəmû'â, rumor; see šmʿ in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He had no business spending time with a woman who could say the word schmooze and make him forget his own name.”
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“Also, von Braun's ability to popularize space travel/"schmooze" his way through Army/NASA/DC bureaucracy was in another class.”
Bill Nelson Continues To Block NASA Administrator Nominees - NASA Watch
“So let me guess – this is a "schmooze" get together to try to get the cops on their side.”
Conservatives and the men in blue - Capital Diary, Uncategorized - Macleans.ca
“Master of the Blog Balkin has encouraged me to post some comments I prepared for the "schmooze" on Sandy Levinson's book.”
“I'm with Mr. Link; the "schmooze" sounds like a slice of heaven.”
“This is not a gimmick or a "schmooze" as we call it in the trade.”
“As for the skill set required to "schmooze" a room of execs, it's not really that different from trying to convince a jury of twelve that your client's "story" is the one they should vote for.”
“According to the Daily Mail, the glamour girl was spotted trying to "schmooze" advertising executives when she attended Sir Elton John's annual post-Oscars party on Sunday night.”
“Because Mantle had learned how to "schmooze" with the New York media, they tended to like him.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘schmooze’.
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Yiddishkeit
There are a few short lists of Yiddish words, but none appropriate to the glory of the language, and none that are open. Thought I'd start one, and would love contributions. I'm tagging as I go, an...
schmuck, nosh, chutzpah, shtick, kvetch, oy vey, oy gevalt, shvitz, shtik, shiksa, putz, mensch and 94 more...
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common/uncommon GRE
Combination some common, some uncommon preparation of GRE words.
thwart, schmooze, siren, ebullient, eclectic, efficacy, adorn, felicitous, grandiloquent, eloquence, epitomize, vilify and 10 more...
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Four Initial Consonants
Words that begin with a string of four consonants. The letter wye doesn't count, unless it clearly isn't acting as a vowel.
chthonic, nschiego, tschego, schmooze, schmaltz, schnapps, schlocky, schlieric, schlieren, schlump, schmutz, schmuck and 16 more...
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Fun to Say
Oh-so-pronounceable words.
schwa, sprack, rubbly, swashbuckler, hecka, tartine, ambiguous, ghee, trapped in, abecedarius, highfalutin, dirigible and 24 more...
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Party
What do you consider fun?
Fun, natural fun!rollicking, cheese, jaunt, zipperump-a-zoo, sriracha, daydream, sprack, swashbuckler, hecka, spread, camaraderie, caprae and 11 more...
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Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Worthy Wordie
words learnt from the Internet
unthink, meme, logophile, netiquette, onomatopoeia, singularity, oed, johnson's dictionary, man friday, lewis carroll, ontology, pro bono and 143 more...
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kimo2000's Words
pakalolo, miliated, voodoo, vindaloo, hacienda, acquiesce, addlepated, olio, akimbo, apropos, oogenesis, arugula and 181 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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GRE
trope, surreptitious, tenet, insular, munificent, exegesis, limpid, acerbic, litany, cupidity, restive, protract and 260 more...
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Daily
Daily Vocab List
lull, pious, lurid, objurgate, insurgent, lewd, patio, onus, lampoon, geisha, larceny, maim and 206 more...
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S
saffron, sapphire, sashay, satin, seashell, seductive, sepia, serene, shadow, shimmer, silhouette, skyline and 96 more...
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bobfet1's Words
anathema, schadenfreude, sturm und drang, dadaism, serendipitous, obfuscate, kibosh, salacious, misogyny, kismet, madrasah, circumlocute and 129 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for schmooze.
johnmperry cf shmooze Jul 25, 2008
johnmperry It also means to network = to make connections. In Chinese called guanxi Jul 22, 2008
qroqqa The grammar of this verb has mushroomed in recent years. The OED (1989 edition) only has it in simple intransitive uses, similar to 'chat': 'We would schmoose all afternoon'; 'Brooklynites sit and schmooze'.
Now however a number of argument structures are used. They include:
(a) ditransitive, with reflexive recipient:
'trying to schmooze myself a seat on an earlier flight'
'so I can go and schmooze myself a reference'
(b) monotransitive, reflexive recipient, prepositional phrase as goal:
'I managed to schmooze myself aboard Air Force 2'
'I can usually schmooze myself through most situations.'
'If only I could schmooze myself into success'
(c) simple reflexive:
'One thing I still haven't learned is exactly how to properly schmooze myself at these events'
'We need an afterparty after every one so I can schmooze myself!'
(d) two complemements, one the preposition 'up' and the other an impersonal object:
'How to ... schmooze up a storm'
'But I'm not saying he should schmooze up his case'
(These two differ in that 'storm' is a result, 'case' is a pre-existing object.)
(e) ditto but with a personal affected object:
'I got to schmooze up the people who were British'
'to schmooze up some reasonably well known bloggers to come to Amsterdam'
(f) two complements, preposition 'up' and prepositional phrase headed by 'to' indicating the person (cf. 'cosy up to', 'pal up to'):
'I feel that the main goal of most social mixing is to schmooze up to the other person'
'a chance for the big aerospace companies to schmooze up to their customers'
Jul 22, 2008