a. Obs. (See prec. and -ICAL.]
1. Calumnious, slanderous.
a. 1566. R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias (1571), E iij b. Either you talke of that is done, or by your Sicophanticali enuye, You pricke forth Dionisius the sooner, that Damon may die.
1587. M. Grove, Pelops & Hipp. (1878), 6. A railing rout of Sycophanticall brablers.
1644. Prynne & Walker, Fiennes’s Trial, 11. Colonell Fiennes … in a sycophanticall way alleadged, that we suspected the integrity of that Court.
2. Meanly flattering; basely obsequious.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., V. 217. Herod … eaten of wormes, after the Sycophanticall people called his … oration, the voyce of God.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), VIII. 192. They have … suffered themselves to be cheated and ruined by a sycophantical parasite.
