tuft-hunter

Some friends of his accused him of being a tuft-hunter and flatterer of the aristocracy, on account of his politeness to certain people; the truth was, he wanted to go wherever Miss Ethel was; and the ball was blank to him which she did not attend.

The Newcomes 2006

I do not think that I ever toadied any one, or that I have acquired the character of a tuft-hunter.

An Autobiography 2004

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

Framley Parsonage 2004

He was a tuft-hunter and a toady, but he did not know that he was doing amiss in seeking to rise by tuft-hunting and toadying.

Can You Forgive Her? 1993

He is accused of lavishing his favours only upon the toady and the tuft-hunter, and leaving men of independent mind to the caprice of fortune.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 327, January, 1843 Various

‘Fraudulent little tuft-hunter,’ said Dacre, looking after him.

Death of a Ghost Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966 1934

My dear Jack, did you ever observe anything of the tuft-hunter in me?

The Machine Upton Sinclair 1923

But Page was no mere chaser of names; there was nothing of the literary tuft-hunter about his editorial methods.

The Life and Letters of Walter H Page Hendrick, Burton J 1922

For is not my daughter the captive and concubine of an insane tuft-hunter?

Gänsemännchen. English Jakob Wassermann 1903

How must the haughty spirit of Lara and Harold contemn the subaltern sneaking of our modern tuft-hunter.

Famous Reviews R. Brimley Johnson 1899