LACKEY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lackey mean? 

• LACKEY (noun)
  The noun LACKEY has 2 senses:

1. a male servant (especially a footman)

2. a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage

  Familiarity information: LACKEY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LACKEY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A male servant (especially a footman)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

flunkey; flunky; lackey

Hypernyms ("lackey" is a kind of...):

retainer; servant (a person working in the service of another (especially in the household))

Sense 2

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 ("lackey" is a kind of...):

adulator; flatterer (a person who uses flattery)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lackey"):

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)

 Context examples 

Now, said Holmes, when the rejoicing lackey had disappeared, having secured the future, we can afford to be more lenient with the past.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Neither could I wonder at all this, when I saw such an interruption of lineages, by pages, lackeys, valets, coachmen, gamesters, fiddlers, players, captains, and pickpockets.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The palace of a chief minister is a seminary to breed up others in his own trade: the pages, lackeys, and porters, by imitating their master, become ministers of state in their several districts, and learn to excel in the three principal ingredients, of insolence, lying, and bribery.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)