toady

English

Etymology

Shortened from toadeater.

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.

   • Charles Dickens

     Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs.

2. (archaic) A coarse, rustic woman.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:sycophant

Derived terms

• toadyish

Translations

sycophant flattering others to gain personal advantage

• Finnish: mielistelijä (fi), hännystelijä (fi), makeilija (fi), imartelija (fi)
• French: flagorneur (fr) m
• German: Arschkriecher (de) m, Schleimer (de) 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: (Brazil) puxa-saco (pt) m
• Russian: подлиза (ru) (podlíza) m and f, подхалим (ru) (podxalím) m
• Spanish: (Latin America) arrastrado (es) m, (Colombia) cepillero (es) m, (River Plate region) chupamedias (es) m, (Mexico) lambiscón (es) m, lameculos (es), (Spain) pelotillero (es) m, (Latin America) sobon (es) m, (Miami, Latin America) come mierda (es) m, (Peru) franelero (es) m

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