a. [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.
