n.
A servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people.
[Latin sȳcophanta, informer, slanderer, from Greek sūkophantēs, informer, from sūkon phainein, to show a fig (probably originally said of denouncers of theft or exportation of figs) : sūkon, fig + phainein, to show.]
sycophantic syc'o·phan'tic (-făn'tĭk) or syc'o·phan'ti·cal (-tĭ-kəl) adj.sycophantically syc'o·phan'ti·cal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
