n.
(pl. lackeys)
- a servant, especially a liveried footman or manservant.
- a servile or obsequious person.
- a brownish moth whose caterpillars live in groups in a silken shelter.
[Malacosoma neustria.]
v.
(lackeys, lackeying, lackeyed)
archaic behave in a servile way towards.
Etymology
C16: from Fr. laquais, perh. from Catalan alacay, from Arab. al-ḵā'id ‘the chief’. Sense 3 derives from the resemblance of the coloured stripes of the caterpillars to a footman's livery.
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