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Brown-nose as a verb means 'to curry favor (from) in an ingratiating way; toady (to)'. The noun is brown-nose or brown-noser 'a toady; obsequious sycophant'.
The inspiration for this term is the idea that an obsequious sycophant would be willing to kiss the hindquarters of the person being toadied to. The brown is a reference to the excrement with which the nose of the flatterer would be covered.
Brown-nose noun and verb are both first attested in America in a military context in the late 1930s. However, parallel expressions are found centuries earlier. The common kiss (someone's) ass 'curry favor with someone in a degrading manner' is recorded in the mid-eighteenth century--in Smollett, no less--and ass-kisser is also found in the eighteenth century.
Despite the scatological inspiration of the term brown-nose, it is not considered to be very vulgar or offensive. Some people, unaware or unsure of its origin, don't consider it offensive at all, but at worst I would say that it is only mildly offensive. It is definitely slang, though, so may not be appropriate in many circumstances.
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