toad

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toad traditionally taken as the type of something unpleasant (and formerly believed to be venomous).

In Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908), the wealthy, boastful, spoiled, but ultimately good-hearted Toad needs to be rescued and redeemed from his self-indulgent ways by Ratty, Mole, and Badger.

See also toady.

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