Adjacent Words

toady definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage [syn: sycophant, toady, crawler, lackey, ass-kisser] v
1: try to gain favor by cringing or flattering; "He is always kowtowing to his boss" [syn: fawn, toady, truckle, bootlick, kowtow, kotow, suck up]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural toadies) Etymology: by shortening & alteration from toadeater Date: 1826 one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors ; sycophant Synonyms: see parasite II. intransitive verb (toadied; toadying) Date: circa 1859 to behave as a toady ; engage in sycophancy Synonyms: see fawn • toadyism noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. (pl. -ies) a sycophant; an obsequious hanger-on. --v.tr. & (foll. by to) intr. (-ies, -ied) behave servilely to; fawn upon. Derivatives: toadyish adj. toadyism n. Etymology: contr. of toad-eater, a charlatan's attendant who ate toads (regarded as poisonous)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Toady Toad"y, n.; pl. Toadies. [Shortened from toadeater.] 1. A mean flatterer; a toadeater; a sycophant. Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs. --Dickens. 2. A coarse, rustic woman. [R.] --Sir W. Scott.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Toady Toad"y, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Toadied; p. pr. & vb. n. Toadying.] To fawn upon with mean sycophancy.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(toadies, toadying, toadied) 1. If you refer to someone as a toady, you disapprove of them because they flatter or are pleasant towards an important or powerful person in the hope of getting some advantage from them. N-COUNT [disapproval] 2. If you say that someone is toadying to an important or powerful person, you disapprove of them because they are flattering or being pleasant towards that person in the hope of getting some advantage from them. They came backstage afterward, cooing and toadying to him. VERB: V to n, also V [disapproval]

Moby Thesaurus

apple-polish, apple-polisher, ass-licker, backscratcher, backslapper, bend the knee, bootlick, bootlicker, bow, bow and scrape, brown-nose, brownie, clawback, courtier, cower, crawl, creature, creep, cringe, cringer, crouch, dupe, fawn, fawner, flatter, flatterer, flunky, follow, footlicker, grovel, groveler, handshaker, helot, instrument, jackal, kneel, kowtow, kowtower, lackey, led captain, lick the dust, lickspit, lickspittle, mealymouth, minion, peon, puppet, serf, slave, spaniel, stooge, stoop, suck, sycophant, tag, tail, timeserver, toad, toadeat, toadeater, tool, trail, truckle, truckler, tufthunter, yes-man