n. — informal, derogatory, usually Education
someone said to be over-deferential to teachers or other powerful people in order to get ahead.
Type: 2. Preservation — This is a shortening of the term brown-noser, which is marked in the OED-3 as "U.S. slang" and has American citations from as early as 1939 (see OED-3).
See also COD-2, s.v. "browner", which is marked "Cdn (Ont.) informal", and OED-3, s.v. "brown-nose", which is marked "chiefly U.S. slang".