Forms: see the sb. [f. LACKEY, LACQUEY sb.]
† 1. intr. To do service as a lackey, esp. as a running footman; to run on errands, dance attendance, do menial service. Frequently fig. of persons and immaterial things. Const. after, by, to, upon; also, to lackey it. Obs.
1568. Hist. Jacob & Esau, II. iii. C iv. I must lackey and come lugging greyhound and hound.
1592. Lyly, Galathea, IV. ii. Cupid,… you shall … lackie after Diana all day.
1593. Marlowe, Lust’s Dom., I. iv. (1657), B xj b. Alv. Shall they thus tread thee down, which once were glad To Lacquey by thy conquering Chariot wheeles?
1604. Dekker, King’s Entertainm., 323. The Minutes (that lackey at the heeles of Time) run not faster away then do our joyes.
1613. Heywood, Brazen Age, I. 178. I’le lackey by the wheresoe’re thou goest.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., V. 131. Who would willingly Lackey along so vast a lake of brine?
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., II. iii. (1821), 243. Making him lackie it by his horse side on foote like a common Horseboy.
1640. N. Fiennes, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 181. Let the high and great Censure of the Church no longer lacquy after Fees.
1642. Hales, Tract on Schism, 13. This abuse of Christianity to make it Lacquey to Ambition, is a vice for which [etc.].
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 18. The whole of this is eternity,… that share of it that lackies it by the worlds side is time.
1676–7. Hale, Contempl., II. 73. Intellect, that in the Throne should sit, Must lackie after Lust.
a. 1677. Manton, Christ’s Tempt., iv. Wks. 1870, I. 295. That his power and goodness should lacquey upon, and be at the beck of, our idle and wanton humours.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 864/1. It being Indecorous that this Divine … Power should constantly lacquey by and attend upon natural generations.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, Ded. e 3. He is a Foot-Poet, he Lacquies by the side of Virgil at the best, but never mounts behind him.
2. trans. To wait upon as a lackey; to attend closely upon; to dance attendance upon. Chiefly transf. and fig.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vii. Wks. 203. Note no more, Vnlesse thou spy his faire appendant whore That lackies him.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T., XIX. ii. Elijah … had lacquaied his coach, and tooke a peaceable leaue at this Townes end.
1629. Ford, Lover’s Mel., I. ii. [He] Lackeys his letters, does what service else He would employ his man in.
1646. Boyle, in Life, Wks. (1772), I. 29. I saw one poor rogue, lacqueyed by his wife.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Fam. Ep., Wks. (1711), 144. So many dangers and miseries lackeying them.
1764. Churchill, Independence, Poems II. 2. I see Men … lacquey the heels of those Whom Genius ranks amongst her greatest foes.
1801. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., II. 505. The syllable ty … came over in the suite of the Norman families of words, and lacqueys only its early connexions.
1832. Fraser’s Mag., V. 671. Why should it lacquey unlearned opinion, and … submit to become the mere registry of popular judgment?
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., 402. The artificial method proceeds from a principle the reverse of this, making the spirit lackey the form.
1881. Q. Rev., April, 319. He had lacqueyed and flattered Walpole.
Hence Lackeying ppl. a.
1819. Keats, King Stephen, I. iv. 42. The generous Earl … with a sort of lackeying friendliness, Takes off the mighty frowning from his brow.
