What does bootlicker mean?
A bootlicker is a person who flatters, fawns over, or servilely caters to someone more powerful — a boss, a politician, a patron — usually in order to gain favour, promotion, or protection. The word is informal and invariably insulting: calling someone a bootlicker implies that their praise is insincere, motivated purely by self-interest rather than genuine admiration. It belongs to a well-established family of contemptuous terms for sycophancy, alongside sycophant, toady, and yes-man, but its imagery is unusually vivid — literally licking someone's boots as an act of abject submission. Bootlickers appear most often in complaints about office politics, bureaucracy, and courtly or political environments, where advancement seems to reward obedience over merit. The term is vivid, widely understood across British and American English, and useful whenever you want to accuse someone of currying favour in the most unflattering terms possible.
nounA person who flatters or fawns obsequiously over someone in authority in order to gain favour or advantage.
- A person who behaves in an obsequiously flattering way towards someone powerful to win favour.
"The office bootlicker was always the first to laugh at the manager's jokes."
"Nobody trusted his praise; everyone knew he was a shameless bootlicker."
"She refused to be a bootlicker and told the director exactly what she thought of the plan."
Regular plural; used when referring to multiple sycophants, often in generalisations about a group or institution.
"The court was full of bootlickers competing for the king's attention."
The insult works precisely because licking boots is exactly what it sounds like — and no one has ever done it by accident.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bootlicker
Bootlicker derives from the verb 'bootlick', a compound of 'boot' (the footwear) and 'lick', formed in English to picture the ultimate act of servility: literally licking a master's boots. The figurative verb arose in the 19th century, and 'bootlicker' followed as the agent noun for one who flatters superiors shamelessly. The image draws on older European associations between feet and submission — kissing or touching a superior's feet has long signalled deference — which also underlies related insults such as 'footlicker'. It remains a robust colloquialism in both British and American English.
How bootlicker is actually used
Informal and strongly derogatory. Common in workplace and political criticism.
Easily confused with bootlicker
A bootlicker flatters superiors for personal gain, while a bootlegger makes or sells illegal goods, especially smuggled liquor.