schmooze
/ʃmuːz
/chiefly North American
verb [no object]
1Talk intimately and cosily; gossip: we schmooze about New York, what she misses...
- Nearly once a month influence peddlers from different worlds gather to gossip, talk business, and schmooze at his Hollywood Hills home.
- Although this is when most of the pieces sell, to punters lubricated by plentiful glasses of wine (or, in this case, beer), it is also the time when the focus is on being seen and schmoozing rather than seeing what the show has to offer.
- Once on the scene, L.A. officers took control, got the information they needed, and returned to the road as fast as possible, wasting no time schmoozing with the citizenry.
1.1 [with object] Talk in a cosy and intimate manner to (someone), typically in order to manipulate them: she schmoozed every casting agent in town...
- A lot of people tried to schmooze the director into playing Dracula.
- We saw it was her, took the laptop over, schmoozed her, explained the project we were doing, and she said yes, she'd do it.
- He was schmoozed at dinner parties.
noun
A long and intimate conversation: we had a wonderful schmooze about the old days...
- ‘Lashings of booze, and a schmooze with La Crème de la Crème of The Scottish Enlightenment are just a taste of what is on offer,’ the invite said.
- Although the whole schmooze is tuned towards sex.
- Between one and two, the Grill is chock-full of agents power lunching on mineral water (the schmooze is boozeless in modern LA).
Derivatives
schmoozer
/ noun ...- I don't like schmoozers, I don't like liars and I don't like cheats.
- I've discovered many a favourite band at the three-day festival, which fills about 24 local clubs with around 400 bands and performers, as well as thousands of music fans and music industry schmoozers.
- Brilliant minds with controversial ideas get nixed along with third-rate schmoozers.
schmoozy
- I probably should've been a bit more schmoozy, but I'm just useless at it.
- Profiles of McGreevey from throughout his career depict him as a workaholic, driven, charming and schmoozy but eerily hollow in both personal life and political philosophy.
- Standing under a tent for a cocktail reception getting schmoozy and boozy?
Origin
Late 19th century (as a verb): from Yiddish shmuesn 'converse, chat'.