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SYCOPHANT
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Dictionary entry overview: What does sycophant mean?
• SYCOPHANT (noun)
The noun SYCOPHANT has 1 sense:
1. a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
Familiarity information: SYCOPHANT used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
ass-kisser; crawler; lackey; sycophant; toady
Hypernyms ("sycophant" is a kind of...):
adulator; flatterer (a person who uses flattery)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sycophant"):
apple polisher; bootlicker; fawner; groveler; groveller; truckler (someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if he had no self-respect)
goody-goody (a person who behaves extremely well in order to please a superior)
Derivation:
sycophancy (fawning obsequiousness)
sycophantic (attempting to win favor by flattery)
sycophantic (attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery)
Context examples
Ahab did not like Micaiah, because he never prophesied good concerning him, but evil; probably he liked the sycophant son of Chenaannah better; yet might Ahab have escaped a bloody death, had he but stopped his ears to flattery, and opened them to faithful counsel.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins." (Native American proverb, Cheyenne)
"A bird that flies from the ground onto an anthill, does not know that it is still on the ground." (Nigerian proverb)
"Being able to feel it on wooden shoes." (Dutch proverb)