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obsequious

used in a sentence
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Definition excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • In the film, Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts character loved being served by obsequious sales clerks.
obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • She is respectful without being obsequious.
  • He made his solemn, obsequious bow, and went out.
    Maugham, W. Somerset  --  Of Human Bondage
  • McSouthers was not a stupid man; if only he was less obsequious—and less of a gossip.
    Ellen Raskin  --  The Westing Game
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • I gave the name Jenks at the podium, and the obsequious maître d' led me upstairs to a small private room with a fire crackling in a stone hearth.
    Stephenie Meyer  --  Breaking Dawn
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • His usual hostility had been replaced with a slimy obsequiousness.
    Cassandra Clare  --  City of Glass
  • obsequiousness = excessive eagerness to flatter or serve
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • ...the most obsequious and subservient to the will and passions of their master.
    Jonathan Swift  --  Gulliver's Travels
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • Although Sir Gilbert had been courteous, almost obsequious, the fabric he represented had in no wise bowed its head.
    E.M. Forster  --  A Passage to India
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • At Naoetsu, most of the guards stayed in camp, their haughtiness replaced by gushing obsequiousness.
    Laura Hillenbrand  --  Unbroken
  • obsequiousness = excessive eagerness to flatter or serve
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • The priests approach them, carrying torches, their shaggy white heads bent, obsequious.
    John Gardner  --  Grendel
  • obsequious = eager to serve — in an exceedingly humble manner
  • Although he had no friends he was welcomed by his obsequious class-mates and took up a natural and cold position of leadership in the schoolyard.
    John Steinbeck  --  East of Eden
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • I see you are obsequious in your love,
    William Shakespeare  --  The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • Yet when I was white, I received the brotherly-love smiles and the privileges from whites and the hate stares or obsequiousness from the Negroes.
    John Howard Griffin  --  Black Like Me
  • obsequiousness = excessive eagerness to flatter or serve
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not;
    Jon Krakauer  --  Into the Wild
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • The proprietor served him obsequiously but did not venture to talk.
    James Joyce  --  Dubliners
  • obsequiously = in a manner that is excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • The doctor, flattered at this unexpected title, launched out into obsequious phrases.
    Gustave Flaubert  --  Madame Bovary
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • 'Certainly, Mr Teng,' said the second clerk obsequiously.
    Robert Ludlum  --  The Bourne Supremacy
  • obsequiously = eager to flatter or serve
  • and in obsequious fondness crowd to his presence
    William Shakespeare  --  Measure for Measure
  • obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • ...he had come out with great obsequiousness to assist at...
    Charles Dickens  --  A Tale of Two Cities
  • obsequiousness = excessive eagerness to flatter or serve
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • A marquis (watching De Guiche, who comes down from Roxane's box, and crosses the pit surrounded by obsequious noblemen)
    Edmond Rostand  --  Cyrano de Bergerac
obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve

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