footlicking

English

Noun

footlicking (uncountable)

1. sycophantic behavior
2. The act of licking someone's feet.
   • 2009, Daniel Nester, How to Be Inappropriate, Catapult, →ISBN:

     Perhaps, in some variation of Joe Buck's gay hustler in John Schlesinger's 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy, Anna was being sucked into the footlicking scene for want of making the big time, getting in a good group show, or being able to ...

Adjective

footlicking (not comparable)

1. sycophantic
   • 1822, The Literary Speculum, volume 2, page 303:

     I think it was William the Conqueror, whose portly belly led the fashion among the foot-licking nobles of his court; and in compliment to his majesty they all appeared with ventrical protuberances.