A toady is a person who flatters and serves someone powerful in a fawning, servile way in order to gain favor, in other words a sycophant. The word can also work as a verb, to toady, meaning to defer to or flatter someone excessively.
What a toady does
A toady agrees with everything the boss says, laughs at every joke and rushes to do favors, all in hopes of personal advantage. The behavior is marked by insincerity; the toady is not motivated by genuine admiration but by self-interest, which is why the label is unflattering.
Toady as a verb
Used as a verb, to toady describes the act of currying favor. You might say that a colleague spends more time toadying up to management than doing actual work. The phrasing to toady up to someone is especially common.
Related words
Toady sits alongside a cluster of similar terms, including sycophant, bootlicker, yes-man and flatterer. All describe someone who trades dignity for approval, though toady has a particularly vivid and old-fashioned ring to it.
The surprising origin
Toady is a shortened form of the older word toadeater. Centuries ago, a toadeater was the assistant of a traveling quack or mountebank selling fake cures. The assistant would eat, or pretend to eat, a toad believed to be poisonous, so the charlatan could then dramatically show off his skill by appearing to cure the poisoning.
From toadeater to toady
Because such an assistant would do something so distasteful purely to serve his master, the toadeater came to stand for anyone willing to debase himself for a superior. By the early 1800s the word had been trimmed to toady, the term we still use for a servile self-seeker today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does toady mean?
It means a servile flatterer or sycophant who fawns over others to gain favor.
Can toady be used as a verb?
Yes. To toady, often to toady up to someone, means to flatter or defer to them excessively.
Where does the word toady come from?
It is a shortened form of toadeater, a charlatan's assistant who pretended to eat poisonous toads.
What is the origin story behind toadeater?
The assistant would eat a supposedly poisonous toad so the quack could pretend to cure him, a display of extreme subservience.
What are synonyms for toady?
Sycophant, bootlicker, yes-man and flatterer all convey a similar meaning.