Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who flatters or defers to others for self-serving reasons; a sycophant.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To be a toady to or behave like a toady. synonym: fawn.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Ugly and repulsive like a toad; hateful; beastly.
  • noun A sycophant; an interested flatterer; a toad-eater.
  • noun A coarse rustic woman.
  • To fawn upon in a servile manner; play the toady or sycophant to. The tutors toadied him.
  • To play the sycophant; fawn; cringe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A mean flatterer; a toadeater; a sycophant.
  • noun rare A coarse, rustic woman.
  • transitive verb To fawn upon with mean sycophancy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage.
  • verb intransitive To behave like a toady (to someone).

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
  • verb try to gain favor by cringing or flattering

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From toad.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From toad +‎ -y

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Examples

Comments

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  • The man in the restroom of the Highline Ballroom, tonight.

    (a janitor, I mean)

    July 3, 2008

  • Quack doctor seeks assistant. Duties will include the demonstration of the fantastical powers of medicinal remedies of my own devising at markets and fairs across the country. After you have swallowed one of my toads, which are supposedly deadly poisonous, you will miraculously come back to life following a dose of one of my medicaments. Then crowds eager for some relief from their aches and pains, infections and diseases will flock to purchase it.

    Some experience in sleight-of-hand is advisable, unless you particularly relish the notion of suffering terrible stomach-ache and violent vomiting after gorging down a fat toad – in which case, incidentally, you may find that my own 'Potion for Curious Maladies', at three pence a bottle, provides some relief.

    July 8, 2008

  • Reminds me a bit of the actors who are seen eating in junk food advertisements.

    February 9, 2009

  • See also toad-eating.

    April 22, 2009

  • "A coarse rustic woman." Thanks, Century Dictionary.

    March 7, 2014

  • Maybe not too late to celebrate International Women's Day with all your toad friends?

    March 7, 2014

  • There's a frog I'm fond of, but she's been absent for ages.

    March 7, 2014

  • *lights candle*

    March 8, 2014

  • *holds lighter in air*

    March 11, 2014