noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person who behaves in a servile or obsequious manner; a toady. derogatory
2. 2
   someone who humbles themself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if they had no self-respect wordnet
3. 3
   Anyone who is seen as supporting authoritarianism. broadly, derogatory

Synonyms

All synonyms

apple polisherapple polisherapple-polisherass-lickerass-lickerbackscratcher

Example

More examples

"I never knew Tom was such a craven bootlicker."

Etymology

From boot + licker.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.