toady
Americannoun
-
toadies
plural
verb (used with object)
-
toadies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
toadied,
past participle, past
-
toadying
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
toadies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
toadied,
past participle, past
-
toadying
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
toadysimple
-
toadiessimple
-
have toadiedperfect
-
has toadiedperfect
-
am toadyingprogressive
-
are toadyingprogressive
-
is toadyingprogressive
-
have been toadyingperfect progressive
-
has been toadyingperfect progressive
Past
-
toadiedsimple
-
had toadiedperfect
-
was toadyingprogressive
-
were toadyingprogressive
-
had been toadyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of toady
Explanation
You can call the kid who is always really nice to the teacher in hopes of getting a good grade a brown-noser or, if you want to sound clever, a toady. The word toady has a gross, yet engaging history. Back when medicine was more trickery than science, traveling medicine men would come to a town. Their assistant would eat a toad (you read that right) that was assumed poisonous so that the medicine man could "heal" him. Who would want that job, right? So toad-eater, later shortened to toady, came to mean a person who would do anything to please his boss.
Vocabulary lists containing toady
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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This Week In Words: March 29–April 4, 2020
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "T"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But what Raisi lacked in charisma, he more than made up for in subservience; the man, frankly, was a toady doing the supreme leader’s bidding.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
But Alice’s complaints aren’t just about her million sitting in the bank and the toady outgrowths of fame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
Cruella, meanwhile, is never truly pitted against anyone more honorable than a sneering toady.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2021
To a long list of professional milestones, Barr is adding toady, minion and yes man.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2019
On a cane throne sat an old toady lady.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
The heads of those places have been fired or have stepped down, sometimes replaced by crypto industry toadies.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2025
Because that statement on top of his refusal to bring back Kilmer Abrego Garcia has me truly scared of what he and his toadies will do.”
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2025
So how will the "usual suspects", the "softies", the "newbies" and the "toadies" shake down?
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2025
And today’s toadies, worshipers and opportunists may have some explaining to do to their descendants.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
A burst of indignation went through the whole township against the Chief; and even his most intimate friends and subservient toadies could not defend him.
From The Last Laird of MacNab An Episode in the Settlement of MacNab Township, Upper Canada by Various
Edouard gave Edouard a leg up into the Chamber of Deputies in 1919, and fora time Edouard toadied to Edouard in return.
From Time Magazine Archive
To keep Uganda economically afloat, Amin has toadied to oil-rich Arab states in return for financial aid; this could explain his fanatical anti-Israeli policy.
From Time Magazine Archive
He toadied to his superiors, fought with his peers, and would never give credit to his juniors when he could claim it for himself.
From Time Magazine Archive
She turned to her subordinate, Miss Pillby, the useful drudge who did a little indifferent teaching in English grammar and geography, looked after the younger girls' wardrobes, and toadied the mistress of the house.
From The Golden Calf by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
Dick had never liked him; no one else did for that matter, though many people toadied to Mr. Graylock simply because he was reputed to be one of the richest merchants in Riverview.
From Dick the Bank Boy Or, A Missing Fortune by Frank V. Webster
And Abby Quinn is excellent as Natalie, mom’s campaign manager and toadying child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
I love the smell of toadying in the morning.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 27, 2021
Benchley shared screenwriting credit with Carl Gottlieb, who also plays the toadying publisher of the Amity newspaper.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2020
More than social class, however, St. John’s has long symbolized a kind of old-Washington civility that represents either dignity or toadying, depending on your view.
From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2020
In their prosperity they encouraged toadying and sycophancy.
From Friendship by Hugh Black
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
