Person Favor Toady Toh Dee Noun Flatters Gain Verb

toady /TOH-dee/

noun

A person who flatters or tries to please someone to gain favor.

verb intr.

To behave as a toady.

[From shortening of toad-eater. In times past, a quack employed an assistant who ate (or pretended to eat) a poisonous toad and was supposedly cured by the quack's medicine. From there the word extended to a person who would do anything to curry favor. Earliest documented use: 1827.]

"Klein and the rest of Mission Control want a bunch of yes men and toadies." - Martin Shoemaker; Murder on the Aldrin Express; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Sep 2013.