Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Servile or sycophantic complaisance; sycophancy.
  • Pertaining to or characteristic of a toad-eater or sycophant; sycophantic.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word toad-eating.

Examples

  • And I remember thinking, as I waited trembling for the order that would launch me after Lew towards the Light Brigade, where they sat at rest on the turf eight hundred feet below - this, I reflected bitterly, is what comes of hanging about pool halls and toad-eating Prince Albert.

    The Sky Writer Geoff Barbanell 2010

  • Lonely for King, unimproved by the mineral-spring baths Charcot had prescribed, Hay found Cannes “a madness of toad-eating gaiety.”

    The Five of Hearts Patricia O'Toole 2008

  • Lonely for King, unimproved by the mineral-spring baths Charcot had prescribed, Hay found Cannes “a madness of toad-eating gaiety.”

    The Five of Hearts Patricia O'Toole 2008

  • I put it down to natural toad-eating on his part, for I was the lion of the hour in those days, with my new knighthood and V.C., and all my Mutiny heroics to add to the fame I had undeservedly won in Crimea and Afghanistan.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • I put it down to natural toad-eating on his part, for I was the lion of the hour in those days, with my new knighthood and V.C., and all my Mutiny heroics to add to the fame I had undeservedly won in Crimea and Afghanistan.

    Flashman And The Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • I put it down to natural toad-eating on his part, for I was the lion of the hour in those days, with my new knighthood and V.C., and all my Mutiny heroics to add to the fame I had undeservedly won in Crimea and Afghanistan.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • The prince extended his royal hand in token of amity; Ali-Ninpha declared me to be his "son;" while the long string of compliments and panegyrics he pronounced upon my personal qualities, moral virtues, and _wealth_, brought down a roar of grunts by way of applause from the toad-eating courtiers.

    Captain Canot or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver Theodore Canot

  • After having hurried us by their cowardice and Southern toad-eating into this war; after urging it by their contemptible procrastination to its present tremendous proportions, they cry out

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 1, July, 1862 Various

  • Without all the qualities which made him the jest and the torment of those among whom he lived, without the officiousness, the inquisitiveness, the effrontery, the toad-eating, the insensibility to all reproof, he never could have produced so excellent a book.

    The Bed-Book of Happiness Harold Begbie 1900

  • Without all the qualities which made him the jest and the torment of those among whom he lived, without the officiousness, the inquisitiveness, the effrontery, the toad-eating, the insensibility to all reproof, he never could have produced so excellent a book.

    Famous Reviews R. Brimley Johnson 1899

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • More bonds and judgments against him than ever Job had, take my word for it! replied Ordonnez. Let him lick the spittle of his titled friends and patrons till his stomach heaves at the nauseating saliva; his printed dedications and his oral flattery, in spite of all the cringing and all the toad-eating, which constitute the stock-in-trade of his profession, with all the profits of his works, whether by subscription or ordinary publication, will not bring grist enough to his mill, to keep hunger from the door. Mind if what I say does not turn out to be true! He will come to the dogs at last.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 10 ch. 1

    October 8, 2008

  • Creepily, there was an article on page 3 of the local newspaper yesterday about toad-eating. Not the metaphorical kind :-(

    October 8, 2008

  • Ufff, found it online too, Visiting TV show host eats cane toad.

    October 8, 2008

  • This must be where the verb toady comes from. Toad-eating... toadying... No?!

    October 8, 2008