lackey

Or lac·quey

[lak-ee]

noun

plural

lackeys 

1. a servile follower; toady.

2. a footman or liveried manservant.

verb (used with object)

lackeyed, lackeying 

1. to attend as a lackey does.

lackey

/ 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

• unlackeyed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of lackey¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of lackey¹

C16: via French laquais, from Old French, perhaps from Catalan lacayo, alacayo; perhaps related to _alcalde

Example Sentences

This is the government lackey who tortured him years earlier.

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“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.

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“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.”

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He and his lackeys want a country without dissent.

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And it was all made possible by the man whose name was on the sign, supported by his congressional lackeys and his tens of millions of voters.

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