English
lackey
see also: Lackey
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈlæ.ki/
Noun

lackey (plural lackeys)

  1. A footman, a liveried male servant.
    • 1820, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, volume 1, page 198:
      My dearest father,—I say nothing of them,—but I dare to speak of myself,—I can never be a monk,—if that is your object—spurn me,—order your lacqueys to drag me from this carriage,—leave me a beggar in the streets to cry “fire and water,”—but do not make me a monk.
  2. A fawning, servile follower.
    Synonyms: lickspittle, Thesaurus:loyal follower
Translations Translations Verb

lackey (lackeys, present participle lackeying; past and past participle lackeyed)

  1. (transitive) To attend, wait upon, serve obsequiously.
    • ca. 1607, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. 3:
      [T]he ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,
      Comes deared by being lacked. This common body,
      Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
      Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
      To rot itself with motion.
    • 1634, John Milton. Comus:
      So dear to Heav'n is Saintly chastity,
      That when a soul is found sincerely so,
      A thousand liveried Angels lacky her ...
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To toady, play the flunky.
Lackey
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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