Sycophant has to take day off (5)
I believe the answer is:
toady
'sycophant' is the definition.
(I know that sycophant can be written as toady)
'to take day off' is the wordplay.
'take' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'off' indicates an anagram.
'day' anagrammed gives 'ady'.
'to'+'ady'='TOADY'
'has' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for toady that I've seen before include "Flatterer or sycophant" , "crawler" , "Creep" , "Curry favour" , "fawn" .)