toady
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
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.
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
Matthew Wood, after baiting John with fierce questions that threw the young student into confusion, had scornfully labeled him a “young toady with no mind of his own.”
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
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.
