pickthank

1. (sometimes attributive) A sycophant; one who meddles, tattles, informs (often in order to curry favour).Examples: "[T]he Dogge nuſling his noſe vnder the necke of the Deare, the Wolfe glad to let the Lambe lye vpon hym to kéepe him warme, the Lyon ſuffering the Aſſe to caſt hys legge ouer him: preferring one honeſt vnmannerly friende, before a number of croutching picke-thankes."; "This Dodger is mine uncle’s parasite, The arrant’st varlet that e’er breathed on earth; He sets more discord in a noble house By one day’s broaching of his pickthank tales, Than can be salved again in twenty years […]"; "Yet such extenuation let me beg, / As, in reproof of many tales devised, / which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, / By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers, / I may, for some things true, wherein my youth / Hath faulty wander’d and irregular, / Find pardon on my true submission."attributivesometimes