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