A: There is another large bouquet for Jim today. What’s the occasion?

B: No idea. Plenty of people toady up to Jim now that he’s become so wealthy and powerful.

Note: This idiom means “to attempt to gain or maintain support, approval, or advantage from one through fawning, flattery, or other such sycophantic behavior.” We can thank old-time toadeaters for “toady.” In 17th-century Europe, a toadeater was a showman’s assistant whose job was to make the boss look good. The toadeater would eat what were supposed to be poisonous toads. The charlatan in charge would then “save” the toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. “Toadeater” became a word for an obsequious underling. By the early 1800s, it had been shortened and altered to “toady,” our current term for a servile self-seeker. It’s also used as a verb meaning “to engage in sycophancy.”