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Today’s Word

Part of Speech

noun

Definition

1. a contemptible, fawning person
2. a servile flatterer or toady.
3. a fawning subordinate
4. a person who praises and tries to please people in authority, usually to get some advantage from them

History

Also lick-spittle, “sycophant, abject toady, one who will do any repulsive thing.” the 1740s, from lick and spittle. The phrase “lick the spittle” was first recorded as a repulsive act sometime in the seventeenth century. One of the first common uses of lickspittle, or toady, was in the early to mid-nineteenth century. As you can see, being called a lickspittle has connotations of being a suck-up, or worse.

Usage and Examples

Here are a few examples:

• Smith, the new guy in the office, was turning into such a lickspittle with the boss.
• And Washington is revealed once again as our modern Versailles, a place of courtiers and lickspittles who’d use the Ministry of Justice to serve their ambitions.
  — John Kass, https://www.chicagotribune.com,
  “Obama’s silky lie and FBI bias in the Clinton investigation,”
  15 June 2018

Synonyms

Sycophant, bootlicker, apple-polisher, toady, ass-kisser