imagine how pleased I was to find that a major sense of this word is a flatterer, sycophant -- I shall add it to my "toady list" forthwith!

1549 Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 64 These flattering clawbackes are originall rotes of all mischyue. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. v. xxv. 125 [It] doth make thy Foes to smile, Thy friends to weepe, and Clawbacks thee with Soothings to beguile. 1658 Ussher Ann. vi. 403 By the persuasion of some Claw-backs of the Court. a1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. iii. 38 These are my Flatterers,+my Clawbacks, my Saluters. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Claw-back, a flatterer; parasite; ‘toad-eater’. a1913 F. Rolfe Desire & Pursuit (1934) x. 93 The puffers and earwigs and clawbacks and parasites surrounding her.