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I'm sure everyone must have come across a person in their lives, who doesn't seem to have his own opinion, and responds ‘yes’ to everything a person that he's in awe of says.

Please suggest any good idioms, phrases or words here.

For example

There's a girl, let's call her Carol, who's very popular in college, and she has two girlfriends with her all the time who are so impressed by her and are trying to be on her same level, because she is super cool, really pretty and very rich. The two girls think, they'd become cool too if they start hanging out with her. And when conversing, these two girls never object to a word Carol says, in anything, whatsoever.

Please help me out. English is not my mother-tongue, and I'm still trying to master it

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  • Do you want the phrase to be pejorative and colloquial, like he's always sucking up?
    – TimR
    Oct 5, 2016 at 11:04
  • Yes, he hardly contradicts with the other person, trying to show his complete compatibility with the person he's in awe with.
    – Ardis Ell
    Oct 5, 2016 at 12:19
  • @TRomano yes, close enough :) any more suggestions ?
    – Ardis Ell
    Oct 5, 2016 at 12:28
  • @Ardis Ell. We can call the sycophant a hanger-on, though that phrase may be a little dated.
    – TimR
    Oct 5, 2016 at 13:28

1 Answer 1

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A common phrase is "Yes-man", a person who follows someone around and gives "advice" by always agreeing with their idol. It's a derogatory word; one that the follower should be ashamed of - but they may not believe that that is what they are doing - they may simply believe that everything the person says is golden.

Another colloquial word is "boot-licker"; and that's an even more distasteful word (exactly as it sounds!)

But a proper English word would be "sycophant":

a person who praises powerful people in order to get their approval.

This is also not a nice word - but I believe that it is the English word closest to what you are after.

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  • 2
    "Toadie", if you want some slang.
    – EllieK
    Oct 5, 2016 at 13:25
  • 1
    More slang: brown-noser.
    – ssav
    Oct 6, 2016 at 11:30

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