lickspittle

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See also: lick-spittle

English[edit]

WOTD – 10 October 2009

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

A compounding: lick (“pass one’s tongue over”) + spittle (“saliva”); the verb may derive by back-formation from the nominal derivation lickspittling (see below).[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

lickspittle (plural lickspittles)

  1. A fawning toady; a base sycophant.[1]
    Synonyms: brown noser, flatterer, sycophant, toady
    • 1857, Charlotte Brontë, “chapter 5”, in The Professor:
      "I've found you out and know you thoroughly, you mean, whining lickspittle!"
    • 1920, Sherwood Anderson, “chapter 21”, in Poor White:
      "You're a suck, a suck and a lickspittle, that's what you are," said the pale man, his voice trembling with passion.
    • 1993 January 8, James Kirkup, “Obituary: Juan Benet”, in The Independent‎[1]:
      His preposterous insults were legendary, and there are accounts of his small-hour attacks on petty moralists and literary lickspittles in obscure Madrid dives where he chain-smoked and drank gallons of gin.
    • 2013 May 23, “Note to politicians: Stop blaming the media for your problems (Editorial)”, in Globe and Mail‎[2], Canada:
      In Ottawa, Senator Marjory LeBreton claimed in a speech on Wednesday that allegations of spending abuses by her colleagues were “hyped-up media stories” that were inevitable in a “town populated by Liberal elites and their media lickspittles.”
  2. (by extension) The practice of giving empty flattery for personal gain.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

lickspittle (third-person singular simple present lickspittles, present participle lickspittling, simple past and past participle lickspittled)

  1. (transitive and intransitive) To play the toady; take the role of a lickspittle to please (someone).[1]
    • 1886, Aylmer and Louise Maude, The Light Shines in Darkness, translation of original by Leo Tolstoy, act 1:
      "[Y]ou take his side, and that is wrong! ...If some young school teacher, or some young lad, lickspittles to him, it's bad enough."

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 “ˈlick-spittle” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “lick, v.” and “spittle, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
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