pickthank

[ pik-thangk ]

noun

, Archaic.

1. a person who seeks favor by flattery or gossip; sycophant.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pickthank¹

First recorded in 1490–1500; noun use of verb phrase pick a thank, pick thanks

Example Sentences

He now turned his tremendous looks on the down-stricken serving-men, who, as it was apparent, had been groundlessly calumniating his angelic wife; he scornfully rated them, and swore a deep oath, that the first eaves-dropping pickthank who again accused his virtuous wife to him, he would cast into the dungeon, and there let him lie and rot.

From Project Gutenberg

"It were very just to lay you beside him," he said, "but the blood of a base pickthank shall never mix on my father's dirk with that of a brave man."

From Project Gutenberg

The amateur cannot usually rise into the artist, some leaven of the world still clogging him; and we find Pepys behaving like a pickthank to the man who taught him composition.

From Project Gutenberg

He could not tolerate the spirit of the pickthank; being what we are, he wished us to see others with a generous eye of admiration, not with the smallness of the seeker after faults.

From Project Gutenberg

It is at best but a pettifogging, pickthank business to decompose actions into little personal motives, and explain heroism away.

From Project Gutenberg