truckle
To act in a submissive manner; to fawn, submit to a superior.
intransitive
There is no doubt […] that truckling to popularity is the worst political vice.
Where it comes from
From a back formation of truckle bed (a bed on which a pupil slept, because it was rolled on casters into a lower position under the master's larger bed), from Middle English trookylbed. Compare also trundle bed. Assisted by false association with Middle English *trukelen, truken, trokien, trukien, from Old English trucian (“to fail, diminish”), Low German truggeln (“to flatter, fawn”), see truck.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry truckle (CC BY-SA 4.0).