toad-eater

The more mediocre the man, the better his chance of getting on among mediocrities; he can play the toad-eater, put up with any treatment, and flatter all the little base passions of the sultans of literature.

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris 2007

Mrs. Berry hates her cordially, and thinks she is a designing toad-eater, who has formed

Mens Wives 2006

The chaplain was quite successful: he had immense animal spirits as well as natural wit, and aptitude as well as experience in that business of toad-eater which had been his calling and livelihood from his very earliest years, — ever since he first entered college as a servitor, and cast about to see by whose means he could make his fortune in life.

The Virginians 2006

Do not let persons on this account suppose that Mrs Robarts was a tuft-hunter, or a toad-eater.

Framley Parsonage 2004

I was used to this sort of thing by now, and having fellows fawn and admire the hero of Jallalabad, but this chap didn't look like a toad-eater.

Flashman's Lady Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1977

If you're morally as soft as butter, as I am, with a good streak of the toad-eater in you, there's no doing anything with people like Bismarck.

Royal Flash Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1970

Mrs. Horton (60) sets out for Nice with a toad-eater and an upper servant of the Duke's this next week.

George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life Helen [Editor] Clergue

He was not like Saurin in that respect, whose egotism saved him at least from being a toad-eater.

Dr. Jolliffe's Boys Lewis Hough

Howard, that he has an establishment for life, and may be a toad-eater of Stumpy's.

George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life Helen [Editor] Clergue

And again, a little later on in the same year, Punch compares the "beastliness" of Jenkins, "the life-long toad-eater," with the "beastly fellow" denounced in the Morning Post for swallowing twelve frogs for a wager!

Mr. Punch`s history of modern England, Volume I -- 1841-1857 Charles Larcom 1921