| 释义 |
▪ I. toady, n.|ˈtəʊdɪ|
Also 7 tody, 9 toadey.
[f. toad n., with dim. or familiar suffix -y, as in slavey, etc.; in sense 2 perh. n. use of toady a.]
†1. A little or young toad. Obs.
c1690Satire in Kirkton Hist. Ch. Scotl. vi. (1817) 199 note, Beastly bodies, senseless nodies, venemous todies.
2. A servile parasite; a sycophant, an interested flatterer; also, a humble dependant; = toadeater 2, 2 b.
1826Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. xv, You know what a Toadey is? That agreeable animal which you meet every day in civilised society. 1834Lytton Pompeii I. Notes 172 The umbra or shadow—who accompanied any invited guest—and who was..usually a poor relative, or a humble friend—in modern cant ‘a toady’. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xi, When I come into the country..I leave my toady, Miss Briggs, at home. My brothers are my toadies here. 1883W. J. Stillman in Cent. Mag. Oct. 827/1 A toady to the superior and a bully to the inferior grades.
▪ II. toady, a. rare.|ˈtəʊdɪ|
[f. toad n. + -y.]
1. Resembling a toad; toad-like, repulsive.
1628Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] xii. 30 Vice is of such a toady complexion, that shee cannot chuse but teach the soule to hate. 1719Gordon Cordial Low Spirits I. 159 Gaffer Pitchfork is murder'd too, with thick same toady Clap of Thunder.
2. Infested with toads.
1882Edna Lyall Donovan xxiv, The very froggiest and toadiest path in the garden. 1901Meredith Reading of Life 76 A toady cave beside an ague fen.
▪ III. toady, v.|ˈtəʊdɪ|
[f. toady n.]
1. trans. To play the toady to; to flatter, or attend to with servility from interested motives.
1827Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 406 If her friends would..leave off toadying her. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. ii, Lots of us of all sorts toady you enough certainly. 1878J. C. Collins Tourneur's Plays I. Introd. 28 That they might, in thus toadying the memory of a dead son, toady the patronage of a living parricide.
2. intr. To play the servile dependant; to pay deference from interested motives. Const. to.
1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. vii, Let them toady and cringe to their precious idols. 1873M. Collins Miranda III. 8 She..toadied to her superiors when she really came face to face with them. 1881C. E. Turner in Macm. Mag. Aug. 309/2 We never..toadied for a good place at Moscow, or sneaked into a ministry at Petersburg. 1906Times 29 Aug. 4/2 He was toadying round Williamson like a lackey out of work.
Hence ˈtoadying vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1863W. Phillips Speeches vi. 135 The toadying servility of the land. 1866Cornh. Mag. Aug. 239 Needy toadying courtiers come to batten on the fatter south. 1897H. Black Friendship iv. 82 They encouraged toadying. |