Meaning of Sycophant | Babel Free
ˈsɪkəfæntDefinitions
- One who uses obsequious compliments to gain self-serving favour or advantage from another; a servile flatterer.
- One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.
- An informer; a talebearer.
Equivalents
Examples
“A sycophant will everything admire: / Each verse, each sentence, sets his soul on fire”
“VVhile a mean Crovvd of Sycophants attend, / And favvn and flatter, creep and cringe and bend; / The Fav'rite bleſſes his ſuperior State, / Riſes o'er all, and hails Himſelf the Great.”
“The latest act in the Madness of King Donald drama playing globally on every channel underlined the increasingly delusional world the anti-hero inhabits, his fantasies fed and indulged by a cast of sycophants, lackeys and straight grifters, all in it for what they can get.”
“[H]is mind had no eye to espy goodness; and therefore accusing sycophants, of all men, did best sort to his nature.”
The New Arcadia
CEFR level
B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.
Know this word better than we do? Language is a living thing — help us keep it growing. Collaborate with Babel Free