[f. LICK v. + SPITTLE.] An abject parasite or sycophant; a toady.
[1629. Davenant, Albovine, III. G i b. Lick her spittle From the ground. This disguiz’d humilitie Is both the swift, and safest way to pride.]
1825. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 40. To hear his lickspittles speak you would think that a man of great and versatile talents was a miracle.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, III. 319. It is only in England that literary men are invariably lick-spittles.
1883. J. Hawthorne, Dust, I. 4. Stage-coachmen were … comrades to gentlemen, lickspittles to lords.
1890. C. Martyr, W. Phillips, 76. The South omnipotent and imperious, the North its errand-boy and lick-spittle.
attrib. 1840. Thackeray, Catherine, ii. Wks. 1869, XXII. 36. A cringing baseness, and lickspittle awe of rank.
Hence Lickspittling vbl. sb., toadying.
1839. Blackw. Mag., XLV. 767. Such more than oriental prostration, such lick-spittling,… you never saw in your life.
1886. Tinsley’s Mag., July, 54. Demagogues who have not the chance of lick-spittling princes.
