lickspittle
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of lickspittle
Explanation
In your class or workplace, is there someone who's a lickspittle — a fawning toady who always flatters the teacher or boss, saying "Yes, ma’am" and "No, sir," and laughing at all the teacher's or boss's dumb jokes? A lickspittle is a derogatory term for someone who is obviously trying to get extra privileges by kissing up. English has several interesting names for such people, including bootlicker and apple polisher. Lickspittle is pretty old — from the 1600s — when it referred to someone who actually licked up the spit of their superior! Yuck! Calling someone a lickspittle is definitely not a compliment!
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.
A beat later, Perfidia barges into the office of lickspittle Col.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025
Nobody likes a Quisling, or, at least, very few people would want to be seen as an eager lickspittle to tyranny.
From Salon • Nov. 1, 2024
We know that he employs lickspittle underlings and an outside network of shady characters to carry out his bizarre and erratic impulses.
From Washington Post • Oct. 23, 2019
I never knew in that moment that some time later a guy out in California would find tapes of Nixon and his lickspittle H.R.
From New York Times • Sep. 5, 2016
The promise of gold had turned die Oldtowner into a shameless lickspittle.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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.
