SUBSERVIENT


Meaning of SUBSERVIENT in English

I. -nt adjective

Etymology: Latin subservient-, subserviens, present participle of subservire to be subservient, to subserve

: fitted or disposed to subserve: as

a. : useful in an inferior capacity : subordinate

b. : serving to promote some end

c. : obsequiously submissive : servile , truckling

Synonyms:

servile , menial , slavish , obsequious : subservient implies compliance and obedience, perhaps abject and marked by cringing or truckling, of one very conscious of a subordinate, dependent position

the subservient smirk which comes only of generations of tip-seeking ancestors — Jack London

editors and journalists who express opinions in print that are opposed to the interests of the rich are dismissed and replaced by subservient ones — G.B.Shaw

servile is likely to suggest the mean submissive cringing or fawning of a slave

servile and fawning as he had been before, he was now as domineering and bellicose — Jack London

the manner of a prince doling out favors to a servile group of petitioners — Theodore Dreiser

menial may suggest lower domestic tasks and offices; it may suggest degradation or sordidness

competing against a mass of unemployed, they accepted the most menial and worst paid jobs — Oscar Handlin

the scullery boy peeled the potatoes and did other menial tasks out on the open platform — O.S.Nock

slavish , in this sense derived from and suggesting slave, may connote abjectness, debasement, or extremely hard drudging toil

which attacks the poor companion bore with meekness, with cowardice, with a resignation that was half generous and half hypocritical — with the slavish submission — W.M.Thackeray

obsequious may suggest fawning, unctuous, or sycophantic compliance with and attention to those being served

brutal and arrogant when winning, they are bootlicking and servilely obsequious when losing — D.L.Cohn

II. noun

( -s )

: one that is subservient

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.