toady
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
toadysimple
-
toadiessimple
-
have toadiedperfect
-
has toadiedperfect
-
am toadyingprogressive
-
are toadyingprogressive
-
is toadyingprogressive
-
have been toadyingperfect progressive
-
has been toadyingperfect progressive
Past
-
toadiedsimple
-
had toadiedperfect
-
was toadyingprogressive
-
were toadyingprogressive
-
had been toadyingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
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
But I would probably need the toady sailor to help me.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
Like the most treacherous toadies from literature — Iago, Wormtongue, Tywin Lannister — Miller managed to shove aside rivals to latch onto his master’s ear and guide him toward more evil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
The heads of those places have been fired or have stepped down, sometimes replaced by crypto industry toadies.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2025
So how will the "usual suspects", the "softies", the "newbies" and the "toadies" shake down?
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2025
Not that congressional toadies are the only offenders.
From New York Times ● Oct. 24, 2020
A movement among the group of toadies shewed me how this burlesque of my conduct was appreciated there, while Devinsky was grinning boastfully.
From By Right of Sword by Marchmont, Arthur W. (Arthur Williams)
He toadied to his superiors, fought with his peers, and would never give credit to his juniors when he could claim it for himself.
From Time Magazine Archive
Edouard gave Edouard a leg up into the Chamber of Deputies in 1919, and fora time Edouard toadied to Edouard in return.
From Time Magazine Archive
To keep Uganda economically afloat, Amin has toadied to oil-rich Arab states in return for financial aid; this could explain his fanatical anti-Israeli policy.
From Time Magazine Archive
You could also rely on her to do a dirty job for you.—A horrid little toady was the verdict; especially of those who had no objection to be toadied to.
From The Getting of Wisdom by Richardson, Henry Handel
Miss Allen, who, in all other respects, toadied to and imitated Miss Potter, was disposed to be friendly to Mavis.
From Sparrows: the story of an unprotected girl by Newte, Horace W. C. (Horace Wykeham Can)
And Abby Quinn is excellent as Natalie, mom’s campaign manager and toadying child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
It was answered in the sudden burst of Twitter toadying from Fox commentator Skip Bayless, who had inexcusably belittled Prescott for admitting to depression in the offseason.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2020
Benchley shared screenwriting credit with Carl Gottlieb, who also plays the toadying publisher of the Amity newspaper.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2020
And its toadying relationship to those films may ultimately be its undoing, in that it sits clawing at the trouser hem of some of those towering examples of modern film art.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2019
There are two distinct stages in the process of manufacture, called respectively toadying and snubbing, which must be successfully undergone before the perfected article is obtained.
From With Edge Tools by Chatfield-Taylor, H. C. (Hobart Chatfield)
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.
