as in flunkey
a person who flatters another in order to get ahead
a partisan news program whose host is more of a lickspittle for the White House than a serious journalist
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of lickspittle
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
And Washington is revealed once again as our modern Versailles, a place of courtiers and lickspittles who’d use the Ministry of Justice to serve their ambitions.
—John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 15 June 2018
Ricardians denounce Shakespeare as a lickspittle hack who favored Henry Tudor —the winner at Bosworth and Elizabeth I’s grandfather—over Richard’s branch of the House of York.
—Andrew Roberts, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2018
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
And Washington is revealed once again as our modern Versailles, a place of courtiers and lickspittles who’d use the Ministry of Justice to serve their ambitions.
—John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 15 June 2018
Ricardians denounce Shakespeare as a lickspittle hack who favored Henry Tudor —the winner at Bosworth and Elizabeth I’s grandfather—over Richard’s branch of the House of York.
—Andrew Roberts, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lickspittle
Noun
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Hitler surrounded himself with sycophants, had zero tolerance for dissent and demanded unwavering loyalty.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
8 June 2025
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Nobody advertises for sycophants, but often recruiting and interview processes can favor candidates who are agreeable and whose thinking doesn’t conflict with the status quo.—
Roger Dooley,
Forbes.com,
13 May 2025
Noun
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Images of toadies buttering up an emperor come to mind.—
Bill Goodykoontz,
AZCentral.com,
11 July 2025
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Courtesy of Lucasfilm On an isolated farm at the outer reaches of a fascist empire, a mid-level government toady interrogates his victims.—
Jake Kleinman,
Wired News,
23 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Yanking the rug out from under thousands of foreigners who often risked life and limb to find a safe haven in America is an unconscionable act of heartless, anti-humanitarian gall on the part of Donald Trump and his minions.—
DP Opinion,
Denver Post,
9 June 2025
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Her niftiest fight sequence looks like abstract art: a stark black-and-white aerial pan of her shadow battling minions down a hallway.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2025
Noun
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But the joke’s on us — Republican senators, who are the only players with any real power to stop them, have simply decided not to, all so that President Camacho can play at government with his favorite suck-ups.—
S.E. Cupp,
New York Daily News,
4 Feb. 2025
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Sara Fischer, Dave Lawler Dec 23, 2024 - Politics & Policy Media's suck-up moment Fearing political retribution and strained by new business challenges, media companies that once covered President-elect Trump with skepticism — and in many cases, disdain — are reconsidering their approach.—
Sara Fischer,
Axios,
14 Jan. 2025
Noun
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The showdown of General Zod and his henchmen also takes place at the Fortress, with a great twist to defeat them.—
Daryl Baxter,
Space.com,
11 July 2025
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Malaparte, by then, was making his name as one of Mussolini’s highbrow henchmen.—
Thomas Meaney,
New Yorker,
2 July 2025
Noun
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Eating prey can be dangerous for cats, especially mice, which can carry disease, parasites and even poison.—
Maria Azzurra Volpe,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 July 2025
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Ticks are products of their environment, and humans have played many roles in turning them into the harmful parasites that seek us out today.—
Sean Lawrence,
The Conversation,
18 June 2025
Noun
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Tacoma is Seattle’s industrial flunky, the also-ran, the perennial embarrassment.—
Caroline Fraser
June 10,
Literary Hub,
10 June 2025
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Bathing in the blood of virgins is just one such regime, and god help the flunky who dares displease milady.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
2 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Lickspittle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lickspittle. Accessed 22 Jul. 2025.
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