as in flunkey
a person who flatters another in order to get ahead
no one liked the office toady, who spent most of her time complimenting the boss on what a great job he was doing
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in to fuss
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior
a satirical novel about an amoral go-getter who toadies his way to the top of the corporate ladder
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Recent Examples of toady
Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2025
But a moment later, after he’s swatted down one of the two new toadies at Beck’s kitchen table for making a lewd remark about Annette, his senses seem newly awakened.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2025
Tori Otten, The New Republic, 27 Feb. 2023
And snobs are accused of toadying to aristocratic types.
—P.j. O'Rourke, Town & Country, 15 Sep. 2016
See All Example Sentences for toady
Noun
This won’t end well, especially in a no-guardrails administration staffed by a how-high team of enablers and toadies.
—Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2025
But a moment later, after he’s swatted down one of the two new toadies at Beck’s kitchen table for making a lewd remark about Annette, his senses seem newly awakened.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2025
Verb
Fox News has long been accused of peddling Trump’s falsehoods and toadying up to the former president.
—Tori Otten, The New Republic, 27 Feb. 2023
And snobs are accused of toadying to aristocratic types.
—P.j. O'Rourke, Town & Country, 15 Sep. 2016
See All Example Sentences for toady
Recent Examples of Synonyms for toady
Verb
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No crying or fussing or squirming.—
Danielle Pergament,
SELF,
10 Apr. 2025
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Really good, and if you’re not fussed about mod cons or hybrid tech, one can be sat on your driveway for just £18,850 ($24,388).—
Matthew MacConnell,
Forbes.com,
31 Mar. 2025
Noun
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This is the grim lesson—one that the ambitious sycophants who attach themselves to power have always been slow to learn—of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall Trilogy, a series of fat, dense novels that filter the reign of Henry VIII through the rise and fall of his Machiavellian advisor, Thomas Cromwell.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
28 Mar. 2025
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Heslov said that Clooney has made sure to keep his old friends close, so he isn’t surrounded by sycophants.—
Thea Traff,
New York Times,
20 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Xi became China’s most powerful political figure in half a century by promoting a new Chinese nationalism—not by kowtowing to anyone, least of all the president of the United States.—
Michael Schuman,
The Atlantic,
11 Apr. 2025
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And Smoke and Stack are too suspicious to kowtow to these gate crashers.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
10 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Republican lickspittles like Lindsey Graham and Jim Banks praised Trump and trashed Zelenskyy while Russian leaders rejoiced.—
Maureen Dowd,
The Mercury News,
4 Mar. 2025
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Of course, being a junior senator and attaching your name to legislation that has little chance of being enacted—none of those have bills passed—is very different from being Vice-President and chief lickspittle to Trump.—
John Cassidy,
The New Yorker,
22 July 2024
Verb
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Lots of people coming, knocking on his door, fawning, hoping for a good deal.—
Terry Gross,
NPR,
9 Apr. 2025
-
Lots of people coming, knocking on his door, fawning, hoping for a good deal.—
Terry Gross,
NPR,
9 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Small medieval villages are demolished in the wake of hell’s minions pouring forth from their dimension and into the next.—
Kazuma Hashimoto,
Rolling Stone,
31 Mar. 2025
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At just 17 years old, Amanda Seyfried booked her breakout role in Mean Girls as Regina George’s bimbo minion who could predict the weather with her boobs.—
airmail.news,
airmail.news,
15 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Pay attention for signs of distress: panting, drooling, a high heart rate, dry nose, lethargy, or even vomiting, staggering or seizures.—
Kate Bradshaw,
The Mercury News,
3 Mar. 2025
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The most-common ones include vomiting; diarrhea; lethargy; loss of appetite; drooling; tremors or seizures; difficulty breathing; and pale gums.—
Ross Rosenfeld,
Newsweek,
26 Feb. 2025
Noun
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His other performances included as Robert De Niro’s nasty henchman in Michael Mann’s Heat (1995); as Marlon Brando’s insane assistant in John Frankenheimer’s The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and as the suave crook Simon Templar in Phillip Noyce’s The Saint (1997).—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
2 Apr. 2025
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The not-so-grand finale of Reacher’s third season opens with a gun battle that leaves an entire ATF Special Response Team dead, along with a commensurate number of henchmen that Quinn flew in from somewhere.—
Chris Klimek,
Vulture,
27 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Toady.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/toady. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
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