toady

/ˈtoʊdi/

Other forms: toadies; toadying; toadied

You can call the kid who is always really nice to the teacher in hopes of getting a good grade a brown-noser or, if you want to sound clever, a toady.

The word toady has a gross, yet engaging history. Back when medicine was more trickery than science, traveling medicine men would come to a town. Their assistant would eat a toad (you read that right) that was assumed poisonous so that the medicine man could "heal" him. Who would want that job, right? So toad-eater, later shortened to toady, came to mean a person who would do anything to please his boss.

Definitions of toady

1. noun

   a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
   synonyms: crawler, lackey, sycophant

   types:

   apple polisher, bootlicker, fawner, groveler, groveller, truckler

   someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if he had no self-respect

   goody-goody

   a person who behaves extremely well in order to please a superior

   type of:

   adulator, flatterer

   a person who uses flattery
2. verb

   try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
   synonyms: bootlick, fawn, kotow, kowtow, suck up, truckle

   types:

   court favor, court favour, curry favor, curry favour

   seek favor by fawning or flattery

   type of:

   blandish, flatter

   praise somewhat dishonestly