Lickspittle

//ˈlɪkspɪtl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A fawning toady; a base sycophant.

    ""I've found you out and know you thoroughly, you mean, whining lickspittle!""

  2. 2
    The practice of giving empty flattery for personal gain. broadly
Verb
  1. 1
    To play the toady; take the role of a lickspittle to please (someone). intransitive, transitive

    ""[Y]ou take his side, and that is wrong! ...If some young school teacher, or some young lad, lickspittles to him, it's bad enough.""

Synonyms

All synonyms
apple polisherapple polisherass-lickerbackslapperbootlickbootlicker

Example

More examples

"He's such a little lickspittle."

Etymology

A compounding: lick (“pass one’s tongue over”) + spittle (“saliva”); the verb may derive by back-formation from the nominal derivation lickspittling (see below).

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