1500-1600Latinsycophanta ‘someone who tells about the bad actions of another, flatterer’, from Greeksykophantes, from sykon ‘fig’ + phainein ‘to show’
Examples
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Reese's mistake was to surround himself with sycophants.
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
As a result, at least off the track and in business, he had about him only sycophants.
He would not be a fawning sycophant.
It takes little effort to imagine how he is treated by sycophants and opportunists.
My father was just a blatant sycophant.
We have frightened them and made nodding sycophants of them, and now we wish them to fight with style and courage.
formal someone who praises powerful people too much because they want to get something from them – used to show disapproval: a dictator surrounded by sycophants