toadeater

Meaning

Noun

• A fawning, obsequious parasite; a mean sycophant or flatterer.

Origin

• toad + eater, said to allude to an old alleged practice among mountebanks, who would hire a boy to eat (or pretend to eat) toads, which many had considered poisonous. The toadeater (or "toady") would writhe in pain, until the quack gave him some "medicine", and then try to impress upon the crowd that the boy was cured. Compare toady.