Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A liveried male servant; a footman.
- noun A servile follower; a toady.
- intransitive verb To wait on as a footman; attend.
- intransitive verb To act in a servile manner; fawn.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To wait on as or like a lackey; attend servilely; serve as a menial.
- To act as a lackey or footman; give servile attendance.
- noun An attending servant; a runner; a footboy or footman; hence, any servile follower.
- noun A lackey-moth.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An attending male servant; a footman; a servile follower.
- noun (Zoöl.) the caterpillar, or larva, of any bombycid moth of the genus Clisiocampa; -- so called from its party-colored markings. The common European species (
Clisiocampa neustria ) is striped with blue, yellow, and red, with a white line on the back. The American species (Clisiocampa Americana andClisiocampa sylvatica ) are commonly calledtent caterpillars . See Tent caterpillar, underTent . - noun (Zoöl.) the moth which produces the lackey caterpillar.
- transitive verb To attend as a lackey; to wait upon.
- intransitive verb To act or serve as lackey; to pay servile attendance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
footman , aliveried male servant. - noun A
fawning , servile follower; alickspittle . - verb transitive To attend, wait upon,
serve obsequiously - verb intransitive, obsolete To
toady , play the flunky
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
- noun a male servant (especially a footman)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[French laquais, from Old French.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Middle French laquais, which is probably (via Old Provençal lacai?) from Spanish lacayo, itself perhaps from Italian lacchè and Greek λακές (lakés), from Turkish ulak. Another possibility is through French, from Catalan alacay, from Arabic القاضي (al-qāḍi, "magistrate"). See French laquais.
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