toady

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A person who flatters or defers to others for self-serving reasons; a sycophant.
  2. transitive and intransitive verb To be a toady to or behave like a toady. See Synonyms at fawn1.
  3. 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.”

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • A toady was hopping north, looking for some important person to advise; when told that Castle Roogna was many days of hopping distant, it contorted its broad and warty mouth into a scowl. —  Ogre Ogre
  • "You answer first, toady," she said, compromising. —  Centaur Aisle
  • It is the character of a young man—Tom Musgrave by name—a clever and good-natured toady, with rather more attractive qualities than usually fall to the lot of the members of that fraternity. —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters, by William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh
  • Thanks for you input but every LCD monitor made toady is an active matrix. —  Discussions: Message List - root
  • Crude oil slid 2. 5-percent toady, with the November contract settling $2.76 lower at —  Safehaven
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This word has been looked up 141 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

flunky ·  fawner ·  flatterer ·  sycophant ·  snob ·  parvenu ·  time-servers ·  next-door ·  black-leg ·  sneak ·  swindler ·  impostor

Used in the same contextWord Family

toady:   toadies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From toad.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from toad + -y.
  2. Said to be shortened from toad-eater; but rather an adaptation of toady, a., to express the meaning of toad-eater. Toad-eater would hardly be “shortened” to toady.
  3. from toady, n.
 

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/ˈtoʊdi/
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