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# sycophantic

adjective; noun sycophant (a sycophant, sycophants); noun sycophancy

«sycophantic» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

Sycophantic means praising and agreeing with a powerful or important person too much, in a fake way, to get something from them. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#m1)

### In the lessons

In stories, a sycophantic courtier flatters the king; this tells the reader the character is not honest. In school life, the informal words are "teacher's pet", "suck-up" (US), "crawler" (UK, Australia) or "brown-noser" (rude). In honesty lessons, sycophancy is a kind of dishonesty: real kindness tells the truth politely.

### Examples

- The sycophantic servants told the king every idea he had was brilliant. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x1)
- His sycophantic praise of the boss made everyone cringe. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x2)
- Don't be sycophantic; give your honest opinion. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x3)
- In the fable, the fox's sycophantic words tricked the crow into dropping the cheese. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x4)
- The emperor's sycophantic advisers praised his invisible clothes. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x5)
- A good friend tells you the truth, not sycophantic flattery. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x6)
- The film's villain was surrounded by sycophantic followers. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/#x7)

### Note

Say "sik-oh-FAN-tik". Formal word. Person: a sycophant. Being polite or thanking someone is not sycophantic; it is sycophantic when the praise is fake and meant to gain favour.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «sycophantic» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sycophantic/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«sycophantic» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/sycophantic.html) on Mova free.