This week's theme
Words coined after animals

This week's words
squirrelly
canaille
monkeyshine
puce
toady


This week's comments
AWADmail 626

Next week's theme
Words to describe people

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(TOH-dee)

MEANING:

noun: A person who flatters or tries to please someone to gain favor.
verb intr.: To behave as a toady.

ETYMOLOGY:

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.

USAGE:

"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.

See more usage examples of toady in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: