English▸ noun
(plural lackeys)
1 a servant, especially a liveried footman or manservant:
lackeys were waiting to help them from the carriage.
▪ derogatory a person who is obsequiously willing to obey or serve another person:
he denied that he was the lackey of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
2 (also lackey moth) a brownish European moth of woods and hedgerows, the caterpillars of which live communally in a silken tent on the food tree.
Malacosoma neustria, family Lasiocampidae.
[mid 19th century: from the resemblance of the coloured stripes of its caterpillars to a footman's livery]
▸ verb
( lackeys, lackeying, lackeyed)
[with object] archaic (also lacquey) behave in a servile way towards (someone): he had lacqueyed and flattered Walpole.
– ORIGIN early 16th century: from French laquais, perhaps from Catalan alacay, from Arabic al-qā'id ‘the chief’.