toady
/ˈtəʊ.di/US/ˈtoʊ.di/
toady noun: a sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage, or an obsequious, servile lackey or minion. Also the diminutive of toad.
Noun
toady (plural toadies)
- A sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage, or an obsequious, servile lackey or minion.
- "But who is she, can you tell me?" / "Some fair-skinned speculation of old Montreville's, I suppose, that she has got either to toady herself, or take in some of her black friends with.—Is it possible you have never heard of old Mother Montreville?"1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume II (The Surgeon’s Daughter), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC...
- Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because the admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a...1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XI, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, pages 168–169
- Synonyms:
- adulator, apple polisher, arse-kisser, arse-licker, ass-kisser, ass-licker, bootlick, bootlicker, buttkisser, buttlicker
- A coarse, rustic woman.
Verb
toady (third-person singular simple present toadies, present participle toadying, simple past and past participle toadied)
- To behave like a toady (toward someone).
- But bless your hearts, we "ain't so green," though lots of us of all sorts toady you enough certainly, and try to make you think so.1857, [Thomas Hughes], Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC
- He had toadied to the late Mr William Morris: he had toadied to various members of the Fabian Society, he had toadied at first to the great Bransdon himself.1911, Daniel Chaucer [pseudonym; Ford Madox Ford], The Simple Life Limited
- Synonyms:
- fawn, flannel, suck up, apple-polish, bootlick, bow and scrape, brownnose, butter up, dickride, duchess
Adjective
toady (comparative more toady, superlative most toady)
- toadlike
- The bath is of greatest advantage in these chronic cases, with an earthy complexion and toady skin, if I am allowed thus to express its appearance.1874, Transactions, number 19, page 141
Also used as
toady is also the diminutive of toad.
toady meaning in Vietnamese
toady in Vietnamese
- sycophant flattering others to gain personal advantage
- kẻ xu nịnh, kẻ bợ đỡ
Examples of toady in a sentence
- They contained Mrs Coutts – her future lord the Duke of St Albans – one of his Grace's sisters – a dame de compagnie (vulgarly styled a Toady)1901, John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart, volume 1, page 569:
- "Go on, Hiram, show 'em what you can do," urged Luke Fodick, who was a sort of toady to Hiram Shell, the school bully, if ever there was one.1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine:
- Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman turned Democrat, said: “He’s absolutely risen to the occasion: he’s a thoroughly despicable, dishonest toady for Donald Trump, and he’s doing it wonderfully.2026 January 18, David Smith, Nick Robins-Early, quoting Joe Walsh, “JD Vance: ‘despicable toady for Trump’ – and 2028 candidate in all but...
Synonyms of toady
- adulator
- apple polisher
- arse-kisser
- arse-licker
- ass-kisser
- ass-licker
- bootlick
- bootlicker
- buttkisser
- buttlicker
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of toady
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | toadies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | toadies |
| present participle | toadying |
| past participle | toadied |
| past | toadied |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more toady |
| superlative | most toady |
Origin of toady
From a shortening of toadeater + -y.
From toad + -y.
Words formed from toady
Words that rhyme with toady
Questions about toady
- What does toady mean?
- Toady means a sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage, or an obsequious, servile lackey or minion.
- What is toady in Vietnamese?
- Toady in Vietnamese is kẻ xu nịnh, kẻ bợ đỡ. See Toady meaning in Vietnamese.
- How do you use toady in a sentence?
- They contained Mrs Coutts – her future lord the Duke of St Albans – one of his Grace's sisters – a dame de compagnie (vulgarly styled a Toady)
- What part of speech is toady?
- Toady can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce toady?
- Toady is pronounced /ˈtəʊ.di/ (UK).
- What is the plural of toady?
- The plural of toady is toadies.
Words near toady in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: toady (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-toady.wav.
Cite this entry: “toady.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toady. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.