Noun

(uncountable) Excessive praise or approval, which is often insincere and sometimes contrived to win favour.

*

, title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery , seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.}}

(countable) An instance of excessive praise.

Noun

(toadies)

A sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage.

* 1929, , Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 61

But how could she have helped herself? I asked, imagining the sneers and the laughter, the adulation of the toadies , the scepticism of the professional poet.

* 1912 , Stratemeyer Syndicate, Baseball Joe on the School Nine Chapter 1

"Go on, Hiram, show 'em what you can do," urged Luke Fodick, who was a sort of toady to Hiram Shell, the school bully, if ever there was one.

* Charles Dickens

Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs.

(archaic) A coarse, rustic woman.

(Sir Walter Scott)