Sycophant now putting article higher (5)
I believe the answer is:
toady
'sycophant' is the definition.
('toady' can be a synonym of 'sycophant')
'now putting article higher' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'now' could be 'ad' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ad' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'toy' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for toady that I've seen before include "Curry favour" , "Yes-man" , "crawler" , "Obsequious type" , "Creep" .)