Earlier this week Vice President Mike Pence praised President Donald Trump every 12.5 seconds for three minutes straight during a cabinet meeting.
The remarks echoed an earlier cabinet meeting in June where Trump allowed his entire team to spend time lauding him.
His constant praise of Trump was thoroughly documented and ridiculed, but the Twitter handle for Dictionary.com had their own fun.
“There’s a word for a person who would praise someone every 12 seconds,” Dictionary.com wrote, linking to the definition of “sycophant” and hashtaging “VP” and “Pence.”
There’s a word for a person who would praise someone every 12 seconds. https://t.co/FlY8TY3fJa#VP #Pence https://t.co/4KMEkV496m
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) December 21, 2017
A quick reminder: sycophant is defined as “a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite,” according to the website.
The political jab didn’t sit well with some Twitter users, who quickly said they would be following Merriam Webster instead of Dictionary.com in light of the Pence trolling.
Except they might not be happy with Merriam Webster either.
https://twitter.com/nealdcarpenter/status/943920602217410560
You had to go there. I expect a resource website to be apolitical. Merriam-Webster it is.
— R.C. (@Bzboyzmom) December 21, 2017
In the past, Merriam-Webster has corrected Trump’s use of “heel”in a tweet about the country’s division, schooled Kellyanne Conway about her “alternative facts,” explained why North Korean leader Kim Jon-un called Trump a “dotard,” and told Trump the difference between the words “council” and “counsel” after he tweeted about Sally Yates, among other things.
You might also remember Dictionary.com’s announced that its “Word of the Year” for 2017 was “complicit.”