a. [f. SYCOPHANT sb. + -ISH1.] Basely obsequious. Hence Sycophantishly adv.
1840. De Quincey, Essenes, II. Wks. 1897, VII. 133. Vespasian was shrewd enough from the first to suspect him for the sycophantish knave that he was. Ibid. (1847), Sp. Mil. Nun, xxv. Neither proud … nor sycophantishly and falsely humble.
1873. ‘Annie Thomas,’ Two Widows, I. iii. 79. [He] vibrated between melodramatic reserve and sycophantish smiling.
