toady

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊdi

Noun

toady (plural toadies)

1. A sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage.
   • 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 61

     But how could she have helped herself? I asked, imagining the sneers and the laughter, the adulation of the toadies, the scepticism of the professional poet.

   • 1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, Baseball Joe on the School Nine Chapter 1

     "Go on, Hiram, show 'em what you can do," urged Luke Fodick, who was a sort of toady to Hiram Shell, the school bully, if ever there was one.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:sycophant

Derived terms

• toadyish

Translations

Sycophant flattering others to gain personal advantage

Finnish: mielistelijä, hännystelijä, makeilija, imartelija French: flagorneur (fr) m. Irish: failpéir (ga) m. Italian: leccaculo (it) m., adulatore (it) m., ruffiano (it) m., sicofante (it) m. Macedonian: подлизурко (mk) (podlízurko) m., полтрон (mk) (poltrón) m.

Portuguese: puxa-saco m. (Brazil) Russian: подлиза (ru) m., подхалим (ru) m. Spanish: arrastrado m. (Latin America), cepillero m. (Colombia), chupamedias m. (River Plate region), lambiscón m. (Mexico), lameculos, pelotillero m. (Spain), sobon m. (Latin America), come mierda m. (Miami, Latin America), franelero m. (Peru)

Verb

toady (third-person singular simple present toadies, present participle toadying, simple past and past participle toadied)

1. (intransitive, construed with to) To behave like a toady (to someone).

Anagrams

• today, to-day