Lickspittle

Pronunciation

• RP enPR: lÄ­kʹspÄ­tl, IPA: /ˈlɪkspɪtl/,

Alternative forms

• lick-spittle

Origin

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

“ˈlick-spittle” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

Full definition of lickspittle

Noun

1. A fawning toady; a base sycophant.
• 1857, Charlotte Brontë, The Professor, ch. 5:"I've found you out and know you thoroughly, you mean, whining lickspittle!"
• 1920, Sherwood Anderson, Poor White, ch. 21:"You're a suck, a suck and a lickspittle, that's what you are," said the pale man, his voice trembling with passion.
• 2013 May 23, "Note to politicians: Stop blaming the media for your problems (Editorial)," Globe and Mail (Canada) (retrieved 23 May 2013)In Ottawa, Senator Marjory LeBreton claimed in a speech on Wednesday that allegations of spending abuses by her colleagues were “hyped-up media stories” that were inevitable in a “town populated by Liberal elites and their media lickspittles.”
2. (by extension) The practice of giving empty flattery for personal gain.

Synonyms

• (fawning toady) brown noser, flatterer, sycophant, toady

Derived terms

• lickspittling verbal noun

Verb

1. (transitive and intransitive) To play the toady; take the rôle of a lickspittle to please (someone).
• 1886, Aylmer and Louise Maude (translators), (author), The Light Shines in Darkness, act 1:"You take his side, and that is wrong! . . . If some young school teacher, or some young lad, lickspittles to him, it's bad enough."