sycophant

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɪkəfænt/, /ˈsɪkəfənt/

Noun

sycophant (plural sycophants)

1. One who uses obsequious compliments to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another; a servile flatterer.

   Synonyms: ass-kisser, brown noser, suck up, yes man, Thesaurus:sycophant

   • 1683, John Dryden, “The Art of Poetry”, Canto I:

     A sycophant will everything admire: / Each verse, each sentence, sets his soul on fire

2. One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.

   Synonyms: parasite, flunky, lackey, Thesaurus:sycophant

3. (obsolete) An informer; a talebearer.
   • 1580, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, Book II:

     […] his mind had no eye to espy goodness; and therefore accusing sycophants, of all men, did best sort to his nature.

Translations

• French: flagorneur
• German: Kriecher, Schmeichler, Speichellecker, Schleimer
• Italian: ruffiano, delatore, leccaculo, adulatore, sicofante, leccapiedi
• Portuguese: sicofanta, bajulador, adulador, lambe-botas, puxa-saco, assecla
• Russian: льстец
• Spanish: sicofanta, adulador, pelota, lameculos, chupamedias, pelotillero (Spain), acomedido, barbero (Mexico), lamebotas, arrastrado (Cuba, Uruguay, Venezuela, El Salvador)

Verb

sycophant (sycophants, present participle sycophanting; past and past participle sycophanted)

1. (transitive) To inform against; hence, to calumniate.
   • 1642, John Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus:

     As therefore he began in the title, so in the next leaf he makes it his first business to tamper with his reader by sycophanting and misnaming the work of his adversary.

2. (transitive) To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously.

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