Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of a gambler, to increase one’s wager; thus buttering adj.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Butter, to double or treble the Bet or Wager to recover all Losses.
a.1719		J. Addison Freeholder No. 40 in Works (1821) 505: One of Mr. Congreve’s prologues, which compares a writer to a buttering gamester, that stakes all his winning upon one cast; so that if he loses the last throw, he is sure to be undone .
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: butter a bet, to double or triple it.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 29: I hate to be bubbled;—everytime I buttered a bet, it was a Flemish account.

2. to flatter; thus to disguise with euphemism, flattery etc.; thus buttered, adj., flattered; buttering n., flattery.

1700		Congreve Way of the World Prologue: The squire that’s buttered still, is sure to be undone.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: To butter, signifies [...] to cheat or defraud in a smooth or plausible Manner; as, He’ll not be so easily butter’d; He’s aware of your Design; You cannot beguile or cheat him; He’s upon his Guard, &c.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1816		W. Scott Antiquary in Waverley (1855) II 218: Keep him employed, man, for half-an-hour or so – butter him with some warlike terms – praise his dress and address.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 68: [He] should know when to use the clean and when the dirty side of his tongue —when to butter a booby and when to snub a snob.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 135: The vulgar habit of personal flattery or [...] ‘buttering a party to his face in the cheekiest manner’.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 35: It doesn’t matter how thick you butter me; they’ll swallow it.
1880		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 18 Sept. 6/1: Once let the former discover that writer is reliable, and that he doesn't crack up trashy pieces or ‘butter’ incapable performers, and they will read and be guided by his criticisms.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 18/3: Next he is paraded to move the Address in reply to the Governor’s speech, and, at Government House, his Excellency butters him a bit about his fine, manly speech […].
1894		Truth (Sydney) 7 Oct. 3/2: Haynes greased the people of Wellington [...] in the course of his speech on the butter question. He couldn’t help buttering them but there was no necessity to ‘rub it in’.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 24 Nov. 115: By fawning and buttering he’d made himself a favourite with Sarsons.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 231: Buggin was on his perch being buttered by as dangerous a gang of swine as you'd find in Asia.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Dec. 1/1: The buttering of Hackett as ‘pioneer cherry grower’ is tolerably powerful.
1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 175: I borrowed it to butter a house detective.
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 107: Maybe they buttered me a mite too careful, too patronizin.
1995		B. James Detective is Dead (1996) 45: She has this big-eyed way of buttering when she wanted something.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 492: He didn’t even need to butter her. No patter, no nothing.

3. to whip, to thrash.

1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 1 Oct. n.p.: [W]e have enclosed a bill for $2 [...] which we wish to have settled [...] or both side [sic] of your head will be buttered.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 165/1: from ca. 1820; ob. by 1930.

4. (US campus) to like.

1996

Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 2: butter – like: ‘I butter him’.