variants also flunkey or flunkie

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of flunky No matter what spec-chart flunkies might say about a car that merely hits 60 mph in 3.1 seconds, GT 63 proved as ferocious and exhilarating as any front-engine GT car available, whether German, Italian or English. Mark Ewing, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2024 Jin and his other flunkies excuse themselves, but Tetsu keeps Botan there to question him. Chris Klimek, Vulture, 24 July 2024 By quieting the clamor among the offended Giants, Mays was not acting as a flunky for his white manager. Aram Goudsouzian / Made By History, TIME, 25 June 2024 One fib could land him in jail with the rest of his flunkies. Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 25 May 2024 See All Example Sentences for flunky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flunky
Noun
  • If dogs are our servants, cats are our shadows.
    Rebecca van Laer September 30, Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Beckett’s symbols of master and slave — the whip, the rope, the servant weighed down with baggage — are either mimed or cut and in doing so lose its real horror.
    Frank Rizzo, Variety, 29 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The only character who seems entirely transparent is Frederik, who can’t hide his resentment of his second-class spousal status or his contempt for the sycophants and mediocrities who cling to his wife like barnacles.
    Justin Chang, New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2025
  • This willingness of the AI to heap praise and act as a sycophant has worrying consequences for the populace as a whole.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Netflix After Jake betrays Vince by tricking him into revealing his whereabouts to Mancuso and his lackey Babbitt (Chris Coy) to protect Vince's daughter Gen (Odessa Young) and get her to safety, Jake rushes to help Vince once again escape a vengeful Mancuso's clutches.
    Megan McCluskey, Time, 18 Sep. 2025
  • In the months before the $5 million match, Ali turned up the invective, calling Frazier dumb, mocking his dark skin, and painting him as a lackey for his white handlers.
    Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Such as holding court, choosing your sobriquet, and naming imbecilic lickspittles to our Kingsguard.
    Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 7 July 2024
  • What happened to the idea that art and culture should be a contemptuous refuge from the mainstream, as opposed to this lickspittle, running dog accommodation to the mainstream?
    Billboard Staff, Billboard, 3 June 2022
Noun
  • Darrell Smith, assistant commissioner for school choice and parent empowerment, has said about 55% are in kindergarten through fifth grade, while 23% are in middle school and 22% are in high school.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 2 Oct. 2025
  • An invitation to visit a friend’s family farm in Kenya in 1956 led to an introduction with the archaeologist Louis Leakey, who hired Goodall as an assistant and secretary.
    Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Like many digital beings, Reps, as Replika’s avatars are known, are engineered to be agreeable, nonjudgmental, and zealously supportive—i.e., suck-ups.
    Patricia Marx, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Matthew eventually one-ups the request by losing his boxers as well and going full Winnie the Pooh, which earns him the respect of his fellow suck-ups.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 23 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • This draft meeting resembled a bully in the high school cafeteria seeking toadies — any veneer of scouting objectivity was shed.
    Michael Hurley, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Sep. 2025
  • In the past, Newsom denounced judges who ruled against them as toadies of the firearms industry.
    Dan Walters, Mercury News, 5 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Grealish, no longer prone, headed, just like Moyes, to the South Stand and appeared to blow a kiss to adoring fans.
    Patrick Boyland, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2025
  • The paddock was filled with drivers and engineers working together while surrounded by fans watching closely.
    Keenan Thompson, Freep.com, 6 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Flunky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flunky. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

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