DictionaryAI

sycophant

SIK-uh-fant/ˈsɪkəfænt/

Pluralsycophants

Verbsycophants, sycophanting, sycophanted

4 meanings of sycophant

Practice

  1. 1
    brown-nosernouncountable
    A person who flatters or attaches themselves to powerful or important people in order to gain favor or advantage.

    The dictator filled his cabinet with sycophants who praised every decision he made.

    She refused to play the sycophant, even when a little flattery might have won her the promotion.

    UsageMore formal than suck-up or brown-noser; often surrounded by sycophants.

    Similarflatterer, toady, yes-man

    Note

    Where suck-up and brown-noser are slang, sycophant is the formal name for the type, the word Henry Fielding chose in "Of True Greatness" for a crowd that will "fawn and flatter, creep and cringe and bend".

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Henry Fielding used sycophants in “Of True Greatness” for the crowd described by the quoted words. en.wikisource.org
  2. 2
    verbraretransitive
    To flatter someone in a fawning way, behaving as a sycophant toward them.

    UsageMost writers say fawn over someone or play the sycophant instead.

    Similarflatter

  3. 3
    nounobsolete
    An informer; someone who carries tales about others.
    [H]is mind had no eye to espy goodness; and therefore accusing sycophants, of all men, did best sort to his nature.
    a. 1587, Philip Sidney, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia]
    Note

    Here English kept the meaning of its Latin source, where a sycophanta was an informer: early sycophants carried tales about others rather than compliments to them. Philip Sidney writes of "accusing sycophants", but the meaning faded as the flatterer took over, and it is now obsolete.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • English borrowed sycophant from Latin sycophanta, meaning an informer. en.wiktionary.org
    • An early English meaning was an informer or talebearer. en.wiktionary.org
    • Philip Sidney wrote the phrase “accusing sycophants”. gutenberg.org
    • The English meaning shifted from an informer or accuser to an insincere flatterer. en.wikipedia.org

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To inform against someone, and by extension to slander them.
    As therefore he began in the title, so in the next leaf he makes it his first business to tamper with his reader by sycophanting and misnaming the work of his adversary.
    1642, John Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus
    Note

    The verb follows the informer from reporting a person to blackening them. Milton, in his Apology for Smectymnuus (1642), accuses an opponent of "sycophanting and misnaming the work of his adversary", misrepresenting it to turn readers against it. A modern reader would take the verb as fawning, so the old meaning cannot be used today without explanation.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

Use it in a sentence

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Origin

First recorded in English in 1537, from Latin sȳcophanta ("informer, trickster"), from Greek sukophántēs, from sûkon ("fig") + phaínō ("I show"). Why a "fig-shower" meant an informer is unknown; ancient tales about fig smugglers or a rude fig gesture are generally treated as later guesses.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

  • The word was first recorded in English in 1537. en.wiktionary.org
  • English sycophant derives from Latin sȳcophanta, meaning informer or trickster, ultimately from Greek sukophántēs. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Greek word combines sûkon, meaning fig, and phaínō, meaning show. en.wiktionary.org
  • The semantic connection between showing figs and informing is uncertain; explanations involving fig smuggling or an obscene gesture are generally considered retrospective conjectures. en.wikipedia.org