lick wingtips

[James Bonde]

[FONT=&quot]The obvious path before me was to drift into a full-time position at a decent institution, work my dissertation into a book, zero in on a specialty, publish some articles and reviews, and lick the necessary wingtips to get tenure. （[/FONT]From The Deepest Human Life by Scott Samuelson）

What does “lick the necessary wingtips” mean？

 

[5jj]

Wingtip shoes are a type of shoe. If you lick or kiss someone's shoes or boots, you suck up to them, flatter them. It's a rather less crude expression than lick or kiss someone's arse, or brown-nose.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Notice that wingtips are expensive, conservative shoes — the kind of shoes a dean or other college decision-maker might wear at work.