Word.ws English Dictionary

toadeater

toadeater noun: a fawning, obsequious parasite; a low sycophant or flatterer.

Noun

toadeater (plural toadeaters)

  1. (archaic, derogatory) A fawning, obsequious parasite; a low sycophant or flatterer.
    • a chaplain, tutor, toadeater, or some superior servant1819, J. Wilson, Complete Dictionary of Astrology "Horary Questions", Of Theft.
    • You're too zealous a toadeater, and betray yourself.1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 24, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC

Forms of toadeater

pluraltoadeaters
alternative formtoad-eater
alternative formtoad eater

Origin of toadeater

From toad + eater, said to allude to an old alleged practice among mountebanks, who would hire a boy to eat (or pretend to eat) toads, which many had considered poisonous. The toadeater (or "toady") would pretend to writhe in pain, until the quack gave him some "medicine" and pretended that the boy was cured. Compare toady.

Questions about toadeater

What does toadeater mean?
Toadeater means a fawning, obsequious parasite; a low sycophant or flatterer.
What part of speech is toadeater?
Toadeater is a noun.
What is the plural of toadeater?
The plural of toadeater is toadeaters.

Words near toadeater in the dictionary

  1. toadback
  2. toadbacks
  3. toadbug
  4. toadeat
  5. toadeaten
  6. toadeater
  7. toadeaters
  8. toadeating
  9. toadeats
  10. toaded
  11. toaderies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: toadeater (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “toadeater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toadeater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.