Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To obtain by the methods of a pickthank.
- noun One who picks a thank (see under pick, v.); an officious fellow who does what he is not asked to do, for the sake of gaining favor; a parasite; a flatterer; a toady; also, a talebearer; a busybody. Also used adjectively.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who strives to put another under obligation; an officious person; hence, a flatterer. Used also adjectively.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
sycophant , ayes-man .
Etymologies
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Examples
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I If I had not held you as so old an acquaintance, this should have gone to my Lady’s ears though I had been called pickthank and tale-pyet for my pains, as when I told of Roland Graeme shooting the wild swan.”
The Abbot 2008
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A new-married man, when a pickthank friend of his, to curry favour, had showed him his wife familiar in private with a young gallant, courting and dallying,
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It is at best but a pettifogging, pickthank business to decompose actions into little personal motives, and explain heroism away.
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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.
Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American Various
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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.
Samuel Pepys 1909
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Miss Vernon, as she gave a glance after him; it is hard that persons of birth and rank and estate should be subjected to the official impertinence of such a paltry pickthank as that, merely for believing as the whole world believed not much above a hundred years ago --- for certainly our Catholic Faith has the advantage of antiquity at least. ''
Rob Roy 1887
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It is at best but a pettifogging, pickthank business to decompose actions into little personal motives, and explain heroism away.
The Pocket R.L.S., being favourite passages from the works of Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson 1872
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Le Mercier was a pickthank, angling after the favor of La Pompadour, -- a pretentious knave, as hollow as one of his own mortars.
The Golden Dog William Kirby 1861
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"There he goes for a troublesome mischief-making tool," said Miss Vernon, as she gave a glance after him; it is hard that persons of birth and rank and estate should be subjected to the official impertinence of such a paltry pickthank as that, merely for believing as the whole world believed not much above a hundred years ago -- for certainly our Catholic
Rob Roy — Volume 01 Walter Scott 1801
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I do not see what they can do better, and unless some pickthank intervene to insinuate certain irritating suspicions, I suppose Lord M. will make no objection.
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford Walter Scott 1801
mialuthien commented on the word pickthank
pickthank – one who strives to put another under obligation; an officious person; hence, a flatterer
July 26, 2008
avivamagnolia commented on the word pickthank
~ pickthank – a sycophant, a yes-man (one who would steal your gratitude and pick a thank)
"Our term 'yes-man' seem like weak watered ale, compared with Shakespeare's catalog of lusty terms for this unpleasant person."
Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany,
Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick
– Love's Labour's Lost, Act 5, Scene 2
Yet such extenuation let me beg,
As, in reproof of many tales devised,
Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,_By smiling pickthanks and base news-mongers,
– King Henry IV, Part I, Act 3, Scene 2
January 18, 2009
yarb commented on the word pickthank
Citation on pickthanke.
August 15, 2010
qms commented on the word pickthank
A crafty pol should be a pickthank.
When voters send an impolitic blank
His career's not demolished;
The apples he's polished
Will land him a post in a think tank.
August 2, 2016
TankHughes commented on the word pickthank
<3 think tank is my criminal mastermind name.
August 2, 2016