toady

toad·y  (td)

n. pl. toad·ies

A person who flatters or defers to others for self-serving reasons; a sycophant.

tr. & intr.v. toad·ied, toad·y·ing, toad·ies

To be a toady to or behave like a toady. See Synonyms at fawn¹.

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[From toad.]

Word History: The earliest recorded sense (around 1690) of toady is "a little or young toad," but this has nothing to do with the modern usage of the word. The modern sense has rather to do with the practice of certain quacks or charlatans who claimed that they could draw out poisons. Toads were thought to be poisonous, so these charlatans would have an attendant eat or pretend to eat a toad and then claim to extract the poison from the attendant. Since eating a toad is an unpleasant job, these attendants came to epitomize the type of person who would do anything for a superior, and toadeater (first recorded 1629) became the name for a flattering, fawning parasite. Toadeater and the verb derived from it, toadeat, influenced the sense of the noun and verb toad and the noun toady, so that both nouns could mean "sycophant" and the verb toady could mean "to act like a toady to someone."

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toady

Noun

pl toadies

a person who flatters and ingratiates himself or herself in a fawning way: a spineless political toady

Verb

[toadies, toadying, toadied]

to fawn on and flatter (someone) [shortened from toadeater, originally a quack's assistant who pretended to eat toads, hence a flatterer]

toadyism n

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	toady - a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage ass-kisser, crawler, sycophant, lackey apple polisher, bootlicker, fawner, groveler, groveller, truckler - someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if he had no self-respect adulator, flatterer - a person who uses flattery goody-goody - a person who behaves extremely well in order to please a superior
Verb	1.	toady - try to gain favor by cringing or flattering; "He is always kowtowing to his boss" bootlick, kotow, kowtow, fawn, truckle, suck up blandish, flatter - praise somewhat dishonestly court favor, court favour, curry favor, curry favour - seek favor by fawning or flattery; "This employee is currying favor with his superordinates"

Translations

toady [ˈtəudɪ] n → pelota m/f

vi to toady to sb → hacer la pelota or dar coba a algn

toady [ˈtəudɪ] vi → flatter bassement

toady [ˈtəudɪ] (pej) vi to toady to sb → vor jdm kriechen

toady [ˈtəudɪ] vi → adulare