Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person of slavish or unquestioning obedience; a lackey.
- n. One who does menial or trivial work; a drudge.
- n. A liveried manservant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A male servant in livery: used in contempt.
- n. Hence One who is mean and base-spirited; a cringing flatterer and servile imitator of those above him in rank or position; a toady; a snob.
- n. In the United States, among stock-brokers, a person who, from inexperience, makes bad investments or loses his money.
- n. A cabin waiter on a passenger-vessel.
Wiktionary
- n. A sycophant; a servant or hanger-on who is kept for their loyalty or muscle rather than their intellect.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A contemptuous name for a liveried servant or a footman.
- n. One who is obsequious or cringing; a snob.
- n. One easily deceived in buying stocks; an inexperienced and unwary jobber.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a male servant (especially a footman)
- n. a person of unquestioning obedience
Etymologies
- Scots, perhaps from flanker, an attendant at one's flank.
Examples
“Thackeray's studies of the flunky are capital; but he studies him _qua flunky_, as a naturalist might study an animal, and hardly ranks him _sub specie humanitatis_.”
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 6
“An offshoot of a failed GOP flunky from the last elections.”
“New York record-label flunky Garrett (Long) manages to score with Erin (Barrymore), a Stanford journalism grad student in the final weeks of her summer internship at something called "the New York Sentinel.”
“How much cash do you have in the bank compared to this man you call a flunky?”
“The only thing I see is at least once a week there’s some flunky from the Administration giving everybody the full Herbert ….”
“They mow down four hoods to get to the mobster’s main flunky, then they breakout the ol’ can of whoopass on a few more hoods in order to get to the same flunky.”
“How much cash do you have in the bank compared to this man you call a flunky? ”
“Apparently the "flunky" was actually a fellow House member.”
“The book was created during a period in the 1960s when Feinstein was a 20-something "flunky" at a movie studio.”
“It takes a special kind of flunky to make you pine for Tom Ridge.”
What More Does New York City Have to Do to Get More Terror Funding?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flunky’.
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 194 more...
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Hey Hey It's My Monkey!
I don't have a monkey. But if I did, he/she would be named ...
hanuman, shock, 500, rhesus, wrench, spank, puzzle, davy jones, funky, grip, swinger, chunky and 27 more...
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At Your Service
Servants who are traditionally male. Inspired by hernesheir's maids list (as well as Downton Abbey)
footman, chasseur, hurkaru, chobdar, lackey, jeames, manservant, pantryman, groom, palefrenier, coistrel, ostler and 70 more...
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