lackey

American  

[lak-ee] / ˈlæk i /

Or lacquey

noun

• lackeys
  plural

1. a servile follower; toady.

2. a footman or liveried manservant.

---

verb (used with object)

• lackeys,
  present (3rd person singular)
• lackeyed,
  past participle,  past
• lackeying
  present participle

1. to attend as a lackey does.

lackey British  

/ ˈlækɪ /

noun

1. a servile follower; hanger-on

2. a liveried male servant or valet

3. a person who is treated like a servant

---

verb

1. to act as a lackey (to)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unlackeyed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• lackeys
  plural

Participles

• lackeying
  present
• lackeyed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• lackey
  simple
• lackeys
  simple
• have lackeyed
  perfect
• has lackeyed
  perfect
• am lackeying
  progressive
• are lackeying
  progressive
• is lackeying
  progressive
• have been lackeying
  perfect progressive
• has been lackeying
  perfect progressive

Past

• lackeyed
  simple
• had lackeyed
  perfect
• was lackeying
  progressive
• were lackeying
  progressive
• had been lackeying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will lackey
  simple
• will have lackeyed
  perfect
• will be lackeying
  progressive
• will have been lackeying
  perfect progressive

---

Etymology

Origin of lackey

1520–30; < Middle French laquais, perhaps < Catalan lacayo, alacayo < ?

---

Explanation

A lackey is someone who works for someone else and tries to get ahead by kissing up to his superiors. For example, a lackey might carry his employer's luggage or fetch her cappuccinos. A lackey can also be a servant who wears a uniform, like a butler, doorman, or valet. Only the richest, grandest, snobbiest families employ lackeys these days. Another name for a lackey is a manservant, who works in a private home serving the needs of his employer — like a maid, but male. From this earliest meaning came the sense of lackey as a "toady" or "sycophant," someone who fawns and flatters in order to get what they want. The word stems from the Middle French laquais, "foot soldier" or "servant."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lackey lackeys lackeyed lackeying

“Flummoxed by the lack of resources”—in other words, aware that a penniless Uganda needed to reform or collapse—he “comfortably settled” into the role of Western lackey.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025

“Tell the brother he can stay, but he’s working for us,” Boy Kavalier tells a lackey, characterizing that instruction as “just a reminder that it’s my world. He just lives in it.”

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2025

At the time, nearly a third of the country’s 68 billion euros in deposits — more than triple the entire economy — was held by Russians, feeding the perception that Cyprus was Moscow’s financial lackey.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023

Caliban, Prospero’s malformed lackey, has been reclaimed by postcolonial critics as an example of an oppressed “other,” an enslaved man whose dignity has been denied by European imperialists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2023

“And now that you’re an Erudite lackey, you can’t call me ‘Stiff.’

From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth

“All of his lackeys are lining up to try to make everybody else’s life miserable to make their boss feel good.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025

He instead delegated the unpleasant task to one of his lackeys, or simply made it known that he wanted the person to quit.

From Salon ● Dec. 11, 2025

Julius is a child of the aristocracy who prefers the company of servants, lackeys and the working-class members of his neighborhood in Miraflores.

From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2023

Rubiales and his lackeys are stealing from fans and players the ability to celebrate this victory.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2023

“So we have to correct the weak little lackeys who think it’s fun to follow a bad example. Isn’t that so?”

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

Too confused to say a word, she lackeyed me into my coat and then ran upstairs.

From The Yeoman Adventurer by George W. Gough

It was nightmare, bereft of its pillows, grown somnambulistic; and London became the antechamber to Hades, lackeyed by idle dreams and peopled by mistakes.

From The Voice in the Fog by Harold MacGrath

Inanity dogs the footsteps of the classic tradition, which is everywhere lackeyed, through a long decline, by the pallor of reflected glories. 

From Style by Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh

This common body, Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion.

From Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

This common body Like to a vagabond Flag upon the stream Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion.

From The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

Lo! this loud, lackeying praise Will stay behind to greet the usurping moon, When they have cloud-barred over thee the West.

From New Poems by Francis Thompson

His mind was lackeying Persis, who knew so many people and was having so good a time.

From What Will People Say? A novel by Rupert Hughes

To him, too, the multitude—   …This common body,   Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,   Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide   To rot itself with motion.

From Shakspere and Montaigne by Jacob Feis

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---