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toady - 5 dictionary results

toad⋅y

  [toh-dee] noun, plural toad⋅ies, verb, toad⋅ied, toad⋅y⋅ing.
Use toady in a Sentence
–noun
1. an obsequious flatterer; sycophant.
–verb (used with object)
2. to be the toady to.
–verb (used without object)
3. to be a toady.
Origin:
1680–90; toad + -y 2

Related forms:
toad⋅y⋅ish, adjective
toad⋅y⋅ism, noun

Synonyms:
1. fawner, yes man, parasite, apple polisher.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To toady
toad·y   (tō'dē)   
n.   pl. toad·ies
A person who flatters or defers to others for self-serving reasons; a sycophant.
tr. & intr.v.   toad·ied, toad·y·ing, toad·ies
To be a toady to or behave like a toady. See Synonyms at fawn1.

[From toad.]
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."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Toady

Toad"y\, n.; pl. Toadies. [Shortened from toadeater.]

1. A mean flatterer; a toadeater; a sycophant.

Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs. --Dickens.

2. A coarse, rustic woman. [R.] --Sir W. Scott.

Toady

Toad"y\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Toadied; p. pr. & vb. n. Toadying.] To fawn upon with mean sycophancy.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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toady  (n.)
"servile parasite," 1826, apparently shortened from toad-eater "fawning flatterer" (1742), originally referring to the assistant of a charlatan, who ate a toad (believed to be poisonous) to enable his master to display his skill in expelling the poison (1629). The verb is recorded from 1827.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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