sycophantic, a.
(sɪkəˈfæntɪk)
[ad. Gr. σῡκοϕαντικός, f. σῡκοϕάντης sycophant.]
a. Having the character of, or characteristic of, a sycophant; meanly flattering; basely obsequious. b. Calumnious, slanderous.
| 1676 Row Contn. Blair's Autobiogr. xii. (1848) 547 The base sycophantic fools magnify and extol Sharp. 1782 V. Knox Ess. lvii. (1819) II. 3 Mean, unprincipled, selfish, and sycophantic deceivers. 1801 Mason Suppl. to Johnson, Sycophantick, adj., tale bearing; maliciously officious. 1828 D'Israeli Chas. I, I. ix. 274 That sycophantic blasphemy, which the Court-bishops..carried to an incredible excess. 1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. i. 24 Upon sycophantic knees they bowed before the conqueror. 1870 Binnie Psalms ii. x. 348 Sycophantic divines have often made of it [sc. divine right] a flattering unction for the ears of princes. |