What does "flunkey" mean?

An underling; a liveried servant or a footman; servant, retainer – a person working in the service of another (especially in the household).

What is a synonym for "flunkey"?

Common synonyms include: lackey, apple polisher, apple-polisher, ass-licker, bootlick, brownnose.

//ˈflʌŋki// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An underling; a liveried servant or a footman; servant, retainer – a person working in the service of another (especially in the household). derogatory
"“One marble hall, with staircase complete, one butler and three flunkeys to receive a retired sojer who dares to ring the bell. D'you know, old boy, I gave my bowler to the butler, whangee to one flunkey, gloves to another, and there was the fourth poor blighter looking like an orphan at a Mothers' Meeting. …""
2
a person of unquestioning obedience wordnet
3
An unpleasant, snobby or cringeworthy person.
4
a male servant (especially a footman) wordnet

"If you behave like a flunkey, you're treated like a flunkey."

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