lackey

American  

[lak-ee] / ˈlæk i /

Or lacquey

noun

• lackeys
  plural

1. a servile follower; toady.

2. a footman or liveried manservant.

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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

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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

That she and Franklyn task themselves with rewriting the copy instead of simply asking some lackey on the marketing team to request a less geriatric word for “suppository” is a colossal waste of their time.

From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023

It was an unwelcome reminder of the lingering perception that the island nation somehow remains Moscow’s financial lackey.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 8, 2023

“I am not some inconsequential lackey the Bureau can bully for information. You can either accept or you can leave empty-handed whilst utter chaos is wreaked upon your precious Bureau.”

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

“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

The temporary restraining order blocks Musk’s fresh-faced lackeys from accessing the payment systems responsible for disbursing federal paychecks, Social Security and Medicare benefits, and tax refunds.

From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2025

They all jump on a call to one of Lukas Mattson’s lackeys, where Shiv waves away a question about which one of them is the leader, saying, “We’re a pretty fluid group.”

From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2023

Australia's spy chief last week hit out in his annual security threat assessment at former military pilots who turn to working for authoritarian regimes, describing them as "lackeys, more 'top tools' than 'top guns'".

From Reuters ● Mar. 1, 2023

“It’s really weird to see what they’re up to now that we’re gone. Just more of the same—Evelyn’s a jerk, so are all her lackeys, and so on—but it was like getting a news report.”

From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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