lickspittle

See also: lick-spittle

English

WOTD – 10 October 2009

Alternative forms

• lick-spittle

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).

Pronunciation

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

  • Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

lickspittle (plural lickspittles)

1. A fawning toady; a base sycophant.

   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^[1]:

     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^[2], 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.”

   • 2021 September 2, Paul Simms, “The Prisoner” (1:01 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[3], season 3, episode 1, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

     “I frankly couldn't give a cat's knuckle about Gizmo. I mean, he's just kind of this fluttering lickspittle that is always bouncing about, always behind Nandor. But Nandor likes him.” “Oh, shut up, Colin Robinson. You're giving me the pip.”

2. (by extension) The practice of giving empty flattery for personal gain.

Derived terms

• lickspittling (verbal noun)
• lickspittlery

Translations

fawning toady

• Azerbaijani: yaltaq (az)
• Bulgarian: полизурко m (polizurko), блюдолизец (bg) m (bljudolizec)
• Dutch: slijmerd (nl), pluimstrijker
• Finnish: hännystelijä (fi), nuoleskelija (fi)
• German: Speichellecker (de) m
• Polish: lizus (pl) m, przydupas (pl) m, wazeliniarz (pl) m, dupowłaz m
• Quechua: llaqwaq
• Russian: льстец (ru) m (lʹstec), подхали́м (ru) m (podxalím); лизоблю́д (ru) m (lizobljúd)

practice of giving empty flattery

• Azerbaijani: yaltaqlıq (az)
• Russian: лизоблю́дство (ru) n (lizobljúdstvo), подхали́мство (ru) n (podxalímstvo)

Verb

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).
   • 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."

Translations

act as a fawning toady

• Azerbaijani: yaltaqlıq etmək
• Danish: spytslikker c
• Finnish: nuoleskelija (fi)
• French: lèche-botte (fr), lèche-cul (fr)
• Macedonian: подлизурко m (podlizurko)
• Norwegian: spyttslikker (no) m
• Polish: podlizywać się (pl) impf, podlizać się pf, włazić w dupę (pl) impf
• Russian: льстить (ru) (lʹstitʹ), подхалимничать (ru) (podxalimničatʹ), (informal, colloquial) подли́зываться (ru) (podlízyvatʹsja)