lickspittle

• lick-spittle

A compounding: lick (“pass one’s tongue over”) + spittle (“saliva”); the verb may derive by back-formation from the nominal derivation lickspittling (see below).[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lĭkʹspĭtl, lĭkʹspĭtəl, IPA^(key): /ˈlɪkspɪtl/,[1][2] /ˈlɪkspɪtəl/,[1][2]

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lickspittle (plural lickspittles)

1. A fawning toady; a base sycophant.[1]

   Synonyms: brown noser, flatterer, sycophant, toady

   • 1857, Charlotte Brontë, “chapter 5”, in The Professor:

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

   • 1920, Sherwood Anderson, “chapter 21”, in Poor White:

     "You're a suck, a suck and a lickspittle, that's what you are," said the pale man, his voice trembling with passion.

   • 1993 January 8, James Kirkup, “Obituary: Juan Benet”, in The Independent‎:

     His preposterous insults were legendary, and there are accounts of his small-hour attacks on petty moralists and literary lickspittles in obscure Madrid dives where he chain-smoked and drank gallons of gin.

   • 2013 May 23, “Note to politicians: Stop blaming the media for your problems (Editorial)”, in Globe and Mail‎, Canada:

     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.

• lickspittling (verbal noun)
• lickspittlery

lickspittle (third-person singular simple present lickspittles, present participle lickspittling, simple past and past participle lickspittled)

1. (transitive and intransitive) To play the toady; take the role of a lickspittle to please (someone).[1]
   • 1886, Aylmer and Louise Maude, The Light Shines in Darkness, translation of original by Leo Tolstoy, act 1:

     "[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."