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obsequious
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show 151 more with this conextual meaning
  • No car has ever had such obsequious treatment as did Rocinante as we moved slowly on. Every irregularity in the road hurt me clear through. We crawled along at not more than five miles an hour.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to 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.   (source)
    obsequiousness = excessive eagerness to flatter or serve
  • Although Sir Gilbert had been courteous, almost obsequious, the fabric he represented had in no wise bowed its head.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff was afflicted, or blessed, with something of his own obsequious suavity.   (source)
  • The frightened mother became meek and obsequious but she could not prevent herself from persecuting Dona Clara with nervous attention and a fatiguing love.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively admiring and eager to serve
  • The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now—images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.   (source)
    obsequiously = excessively eager to flatter or serve to gain favor
  • The elaborate character of the frame had made the picture extremely bulky, and now and then, in spite of the obsequious protests of Mr. Hubbard, who had the true tradesman's spirited dislike of seeing a gentleman doing anything useful, Dorian put his hand to it so as to help them.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eagerness to serve
  • At the inn, as I entered, I looked about me with so black a countenance as made the attendants tremble; not a look did they exchange in my presence; but obsequiously took my orders, led me to a private room, and brought me wherewithal to write.   (source)
    obsequiously = in a manner that is excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • A marquis (watching De Guiche, who comes down from Roxane's box, and crosses the pit surrounded by obsequious noblemen)   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • ...and there was too some obsequiousness to his chief and even to his chief's wife, but all this was done with such a tone of good breeding that no hard names could be applied to it.   (source)
    obsequiousness = excessive attentiveness and flattery
  • The House of Peers, without examining the prisoner, without trial or evidence, passed a Bill of Attainder against him and sent it down to the Commons … The obsequious Commons obeyed his (the King's) directions; and the King, having affixed the Royal assent to the Bill by commissioners, issued orders for the execution of Norfolk on the morning of January 29 (the next day).   (source)
    obsequious = fawning/servile/bootlicking (excessively eager to serve)
  • Unlike the Danes, these Orientals do not demand the obsequious homage of lowered top-sails from the endless procession of ships before the wind, which for centuries past, by night and by day, have passed between the islands of Sumatra and Java, freighted with the costliest cargoes of the east.   (source)
    obsequious = excessive submissiveness (to serve and flatter)
  • The doctor, flattered at this unexpected title, launched out into obsequious phrases.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • Each individual of the automatic community forthwith set to work, according to his or her proper vocation: the monkey, taking off his Highland bonnet, bowed and scraped to the by-standers most obsequiously, with ever an observant eye to pick up a stray cent; and the young foreigner himself, as he turned the crank of his machine, glanced upward to the arched window, expectant of a presence that would make his music the livelier and sweeter.   (source)
    obsequiously = excessively eager to flatter or please
  • I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • One particularly obsequious cop came up to me and told me that he had doused the carpet with club soda so Danny's blood wouldn't cause a permanent stain.†   (source)
  • Ed stood with his hands behind his back beside the door to Judge Fielding's chambers in the obsequious pose of a royal footman, watching everything impassively.†   (source)
  • The King's Justice must be fearsome, the master of coin must be frugal, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard must be valiant ...and the master of whisperers must be sly and obsequious and without scruple.†   (source)
  • If he had once been obsequious to Richard Hunt and the eastern men, he was not now.†   (source)
  • Was this obsequious creature the terrible-voiced terror of the women's wing?†   (source)
  • But these fits were no more frequent than periods of near obsequious kindness when Lestat would bring his father supper on a tray and feed him patiently while talking of the weather and the New Orleans news and the activities of my mother and sister.†   (source)
  • 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.†   (source)
  • Which was also, however, his father's name, and Eric, therefore, encountered, very often and very soon, the hideous obsequiousness of people who deposed him but who did not dare to say so.†   (source)
  • And when you're a man who is variously described as dutiful, deferential, obsequious, slavish and brown-nosingly corrupt, in descending order of distinction, you need to make a show of character now and then.†   (source)
  • On the landing below lived the obsequious owners.†   (source)
  • The man dares to meet Grandfather's gaze with an obsequious grin.†   (source)
  • The owner sighed and shrugged, uttering obsequious phrases of apology and assurance.†   (source)
  • These were men of high standing and the regent received them courteously, but not obsequiously; he treated them on equal terms, as they did him.†   (source)
  • For a moment, he stared at her in blank stupor; she saw the struggle of fear, obsequiousness and hatred in his filmy eyes.†   (source)
  • I could have told Snow Flower about the unseemly ways Second Sister-in-law tried to impress Lady Lu by constantly kowtowing, whispering obsequious words, and maneuvering for position, while Master Lu's three concubines bickered among themselves, their petty jealousies pinching their faces and turning their stomachs sour, but I dared not put these sentiments on paper.†   (source)
  • In my moment of greatest shame, here, in this courtroom with that ...person up there, telling the world....What strikes me especially is how shallow he is, how glib and obsequious ...completely ...without substance!†   (source)
  • I had to learn the delicate and obsequious art form of being a plebe.†   (source)
  • How careful was her obsequious solicitude.†   (source)
  • He looked at her with the expression common to African laborers: a blank look, as if he hardly saw her, as if there was an obsequious surface with which he faced her and her kind, covering an invulnerable and secret hinterland.†   (source)
  • 'Certainly, Mr Teng,' said the second clerk obsequiously.   (source)
    obsequiously = eager to flatter or serve
  • 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.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • He made his solemn, obsequious bow, and went out.   (source)
  • The proprietor served him obsequiously but did not venture to talk.   (source)
    obsequiously = in a manner that is excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • ...he had come out with great obsequiousness to assist at...   (source)
    obsequiousness = excessive eagerness to flatter or serve
  • And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter--the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • Svidrigailov had not been a week in Petersburg, but everything about him was already, so to speak, on a patriarchal footing; the waiter, Philip, was by now an old friend and very obsequious.   (source)
    obsequious = eager to serve
  • The chaplain raised his eyes quickly in obsequious commiseration.†   (source)
  • Trignon's hands were held out palms up, his face pinched in an obsequious smile.†   (source)
  • "Yes, I can be obsequious," Alessandro said, disappointing his countrymen.†   (source)
  • The policeman nodded obsequiously, but stayed in place.†   (source)
  • "Philippe," said the salesclerk, frightened, obsequious.†   (source)
  • Alessandro hurried away in obsequious steps.†   (source)
  • 'Yes, sir, sir,' said Colonel Cathcart obsequiously.†   (source)
  • "One way or another," Klodwig said, "you must be obsequious.†   (source)
  • I'm a master of obsequiousness-in the Italian style.†   (source)
  • "That is from the cold, my lord," said Hallyne, a pallid man with soft damp hands and an obsequious manner.†   (source)
  • Soft, bald, and obsequious, Swyft had an absurd little white puff of beard where most men had a chin.†   (source)
  • However, in the current state of affairs, he was not comic at all; his obsequiousness was in itself menacing.†   (source)
  • It was said with obsequious deference, and Dr. Stadler could not tell what made him hear in it the sentence: "Stick to your blackboard!"†   (source)
  • Every now and then someone with an entourage came through the doors, obsequious interpreters bowing and translating between uniformed government officials trying to appear casual and weary executives from across the globe whose eyes were dazed from jet lag and the need for sleep, to be preceded, perhaps, by whisky.†   (source)
  • He studied the floor steward; he was a young man in his twenties, blond, short of stature, and with the posture of an obsequious servant; cautiously he knocked on the door.†   (source)
  • It was not flattery that he wanted, she had seen him listening to the obsequious compliments of liars, listening with a look of resentful inertness-almost the look of a drug addict at a dose inadequate to rouse him.†   (source)
  • Irritation and disturbance vanished with her words, replaced by an obsequiousness not seen since the court of Versailles.†   (source)
  • Milo's office was a barbershop, and his deputy mayor was a pudgy barber from whose obsequious lips cordial greetings foamed as effusively as the lather he began whipping up in Milo's shaving cup.†   (source)
  • They were delivered to him, and the grinning obsequious banker took him confidentially aside, away from the desk-which was rather foolish, as there was no one else in the office-and spoke quietly by a window.†   (source)
  • Total strangers saw fit to deprecate him, with the result that he was stricken early with a guilty fear of people and an obsequious impulse to apologize to society for the fact that he was not Henry Fonda.†   (source)
  • Stop that disgusting noise!' he shouted in a manner at once so obsequious and so violent that it was new to me, and I could not help but liken it, on the spot, to burning oil.†   (source)
  • Standing meekly at attention were about a hundred Italian prisoners dressed in pajama-like uniforms that Alessandro associated with the men who walk obsequiously through hotel corridors, obsequiously sweeping crumbs into a brass box that hangs obsequiously from a stick.†   (source)
  • Bill Tenny at the corner with his whistle between his teeth, loose, holding up a hand to let the children cross: grinning at them, talking with them—kids who later will grow sullen in the presence of a cop, or defiant, or obsequious-friendly†   (source)
  • The kids filed in, each one of them giving me an obsequious good-morning as he passed through the front door.†   (source)
  • And the speed with which doors opened straight to the Colonel, the obsequious respect of that officer, the words, "The Secretary will see you now, sir," did not remove Adam's feeling.†   (source)
  • In reading out loud, Sophie had emphasized the obsequious tone, which somehow underscored the priest's manic desperation, and when she had finished she heard Hoss give a groan of discomfort.†   (source)
  • Yet there was a certain guile; the tone was obsequious to the point of servility ("intrude upon the honored Commandant's valuable time") when it was not delicate to a fault ("and we can understand how the excessive use of alcohol might provoke such an escapade, which was no doubt harmlessly conceived"), but the plain fact was that the poor priest had written in a controlled frenzy of unhappiness, as if he and his flock had been divested of their most revered possession, which they no doubt had been.†   (source)
  • In fact, she admitted that she may have even rather relished her virtually menial submission, the "Yes, Papa's" and "No, thank you, Papa's" she was compelled to say daily, the favors and attentions she had to pay, the ritual respect, the enforced obsequiousness that she shared with her mother.†   (source)
  • He had grown swollen around the face and porkishly rotund in the midriff, and she noticed that those perfect fingers which, describing their gentle arabesques, had so mysteriously aroused her six years before seemed like rubbery little wurstlike stubs as he adjusted upon his head the gray Homburg that Scheffler obsequiously handed him.†   (source)
  • It was intended as an obsequious flattery of the Condesa, and was untrue.†   (source)
  • And all this Mr. Samgrass took in good part, as it is called, smiling obsequiously when we met, but with growing confidence, as though each outrage in some way strengthened his hold on Sebastian.†   (source)
  • all gestures and fripperies, all trophies of nuts and roses, and shrunk so that not only fame but even his own name was forgotten by him, kept even in that desolation a vigilance which spared no phantom and luxuriated in no vision, and it was in this guise that he inspired in William Bankes (intermittently) and in Charles Tansley (obsequiously)and in his wife now, when she looked up and saw him standing at the edge of the lawn, profoundly, reverence, and pity, and gratitude too, as a stake driven into the bed of a channel upon which the gulls perch and the waves beat inspires in merry boat-loads a feeling of gratitude for the duty it is taking upon itself of marking the channel ou†   (source)
  • He was full of sly hints about the woman, but before her his manner was obsequious, confused, reverential, and he accepted without complaint the presents of food and clothing which she sent him after their marriage.†   (source)
  • At this moment the student, Trinidad, got up quietly, and after an obsequious bow to the Bishop, went with soft, escaping tread toward the kitchen.†   (source)
  • He was not a good designer, but he had connections; he was obsequious to Keating in the office, and Keating was obsequious to him after office hours.†   (source)
  • They walked along hilariously, greeting a few early pedestrians with ironical obsequiousness, jeering pleasantly at the world in brotherly alliance.†   (source)
  • Obsequiousness, servility, cupidity roused by the prevailing smell of money.†   (source)
  • He made his solemn, obsequious bow, and went out.†   (source)
  • "At least five, I should say, your Excellency," he replied obsequiously.†   (source)
  • An olive-skinned youth from one of the Universities stood obsequiously by.†   (source)
  • [She goes calmly back to the villa, escorted obsequiously by Malone to the upper end of the garden]†   (source)
  • Twenty-five francs,' smiled the pedlar obsequiously.†   (source)
  • 'Well, what do you think of her?' he inquired, skipping obsequiously from right to left of them.†   (source)
  • ho!" said the sooty gnome, laughing obsequiously.†   (source)
  • She took the bus and rode with a pair of obsequious waiters to the station, embarrassed by their deferential silence, wanting to urge them: "Go on, talk, enjoy yourselves.†   (source)
  • I wouldn't turn my head to do so; but I could see out of the corner of my eye his obsequious shadow gliding after mine, while the moon, suspended on our right hand, seemed to gloat serenely upon the spectacle.†   (source)
  • In alarm, in obsequiousness, as Hanson's eyes grew more bored, "You telephone to Jake about me, if you want to."†   (source)
  • Despite the rude and hectoring familiarity with which she treated her companion I could recognise in her the obsequious and reticent advances, the abrupt scruples and restraints which had characterised her father.†   (source)
  • For of all the people he had ever met Hugh was the greatest snob—the most obsequious—no, he didn't cringe exactly.†   (source)
  • A Southern town, full of the magnolias and white columns which Carol had accepted as proof of romance, but hating the negroes, obsequious to the Old Families.†   (source)
  • They were obsequious and servile and did not presume to talk to their masters as if they were their equals.†   (source)
  • Morel bowed obsequiously.†   (source)
  • He still thinks it a great centre of high and fearless thought, instead of what it is, a nest of commonplace schoolmasters whose characteristic is timid obsequiousness to tradition.†   (source)
  • Coachmen in tan boots, white tights, and blue jackets waited obsequiously for the mistresses of carriages who were shopping inside.†   (source)
  • During the day the animals obsequiously followed the shadow of the smallest tree as it moved round the stem with the diurnal roll; and when the milkers came they could hardly stand still for the flies.†   (source)
  • Yet so far as the movements of the Griffiths family and their social peers outside Lycurgus were concerned, he knew little other than that which from time to time he had read in the society columns of the two local papers which almost obsequiously pictured the comings and goings of all those who were connected with the more important families of the city.†   (source)
  • She glanced about, hoping to catch a glimpse of Gryce; but her eyes lit instead on the glossy countenance of Mr. Rosedale, who was slipping through the crowd with an air half obsequious, half obtrusive, as though, the moment his presence was recognized, it would swell to the dimensions of the room.†   (source)
  • The barber obsequiously rubbed his wet hair and bound it in a towel as in a turban, so that Babbitt resembled a plump pink calif on an ingenious and adjustable throne.†   (source)
  • This rapid recovery caused a sort of tense muscular wave to ripple over Legrandin's hips, which I had not supposed to be so fleshy; I cannot say why, but this undulation of pure matter, this wholly carnal fluency, with not the least hint in it of spiritual significance, this wave lashed to a fury by the wind of an assiduity, an obsequiousness of the basest sort, awoke my mind suddenly to the possibility of a Legrandin altogether different from the one whom we knew.†   (source)
  • Chauvelin sat down at the table, which had been prepared for the tall Englishman, and the innkeeper busied himself obsequiously round him, dishing up the soup and pouring out the wine.†   (source)
  • He was dressed in the soutane, broad-brimmed hat and buckled shoes habitual to the French CURE, but as he stood opposite the innkeeper, he threw open his soutane for a moment, displaying the tri-colour scarf of officialism, which sight immediately had the effect of transforming Brogard's attitude of contempt, into one of cringing obsequiousness.†   (source)
  • The waiter was obsequious.†   (source)
  • Philip flushed, all the more because the surgeon spoke obviously with a humorous intention, and his brow-beaten dressers laughed obsequiously.†   (source)
  • On the preceding occasion, one or two of the Bleeding Heart Yarders had obsequiously picked it up and handed it to its owner; but Mr Pancks had now so far impressed his audience, that the Patriarch had to turn and stoop for it himself.†   (source)
  • centralized, more adventurous, more absolute, more extensive—the people perpetually falling under the control of the public administration—led insensibly to surrender to it some further portion of their individual independence, till the very men, who from time to time upset a throne and trample on a race of kings, bend more and more obsequiously to the slightest dictate of a clerk.†   (source)
  • When the rich tax the poor with servility and obsequiousness, they should consider the effect of man reputed to be the possessors of nature, on imaginative minds.†   (source)
  • But beneath this artificial enthusiasm, and these obsequious attentions to the preponderating power, it is easy to perceive that the wealthy members of the community entertain a hearty distaste to the democratic institutions of their country.†   (source)
  • The whole air and attitude of the form was one of stealthy cat-like obsequiousness; the whole expression of the face was concentrated in a wrinkled leer, compounded of cunning, lecherousness, slyness, and avarice.†   (source)
  • The first act of Franz was to summon his landlord, who presented himself with his accustomed obsequiousness.†   (source)
  • This little group had divided as the marquis came up, and M. de Bellegarde stepped forward and stood for an instant silent and obsequious, with his hat raised to his lips, as Newman had seen some gentlemen stand in churches as soon as they entered their pews.†   (source)
  • Standing at this table, I became conscious of the servile Pumblechook in a black cloak and several yards of hatband, who was alternately stuffing himself, and making obsequious movements to catch my attention.†   (source)
  • The postmaster came in and began obsequiously to beg his excellency to wait only two hours, when, come what might, he would let his excellency have the courier horses.†   (source)
  • Whenever Mr. Snagsby and his conductors are stationary, the crowd flows round, and from its squalid depths obsequious advice heaves up to Mr. Bucket.†   (source)
  • She drove at five o'clock to a high floor in a narrow street in the quarter of the Piazza Navona, and was admitted by the portress of the convent, a genial and obsequious person.†   (source)
  • Cassy kept her room and bed, on pretext of illness, during the whole time they were on Red river; and was waited on, with obsequious devotion, by her attendant.†   (source)
  • What, I asked in my own mind, can cause this obsequiousness on the part of Miss Toady; has Briefless got a county court, or has his wife had a fortune left her?†   (source)
  • A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.†   (source)
  • The innkeeper bent down, looked intently, ran down the steps, and rushed up to the guest with obsequious delight.†   (source)
  • He was a man of twenty-five or twenty-six years of age, of unprepossessing countenance, obsequious to his superiors, insolent to his subordinates; and this, in addition to his position as responsible agent on board, which is always obnoxious to the sailors, made him as much disliked by the crew as Edmond Dantes was beloved by them.†   (source)
  • That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane,[206] owes its popularity to the fact that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason, and finds himself a true prince.†   (source)
  • At such a moment, the arrival of her friend was a sincere pleasure to Elizabeth, though in the course of their meetings she must sometimes think the pleasure dearly bought, when she saw Mr. Darcy exposed to all the parading and obsequious civility of her husband.†   (source)
  • The penniless Colonel became quite obsequious and respectful to the head of his house, and despised the milksop Pitt no longer.†   (source)
  • When he entered, Prince Andrew, his eyes drooping contemptuously (with that peculiar expression of polite weariness which plainly says, "If it were not my duty I would not talk to you for a moment"), was listening to an old Russian general with decorations, who stood very erect, almost on tiptoe, with a soldier's obsequious expression on his purple face, reporting something.†   (source)
  • The need of looking after others was not the only thing that urged the chemist to such obsequious cordiality; there was a plan underneath it all.†   (source)
  • His expression was severe and uncompromising, especially with the peasants of Mokroe, but he had the power of assuming the most obsequious countenance, when he had an inkling that it was to his interest.†   (source)
  • HE, I promise, did not decline the obsequious invitation of the landlords to alight and refresh himself in the neat country towns.†   (source)
  • Polite to obsequiousness, he always held himself with his back bent in the position of one who bows or who invites.†   (source)
  • The landlord was all obsequious, and a relay of about seven negroes, old and young, male and female, little and big, were soon whizzing about, like a covey of partridges, bustling, hurrying, treading on each other's toes, and tumbling over each other, in their zeal to get Mas'r's room ready, while he seated himself easily on a chair in the middle of the room, and entered into conversation with the man who sat next to him.†   (source)
  • From the way the regimental commander saluted the commander in chief and devoured him with his eyes, drawing himself up obsequiously, and from the way he walked through the ranks behind the generals, bending forward and hardly able to restrain his jerky movements, and from the way he darted forward at every word or gesture of the commander in chief, it was evident that he performed his duty as a subordinate with even greater zeal than his duty as a commander.†   (source)
  • He intervened in the nick of time, civilly and obsequiously persuading Mitya not to give away "cigars and Rhine wine," and, above all, money to the peasants as he had done before.†   (source)
  • In a carriage once more, bustling about from milliner to linen-draper, escorted back to the carriage by obsequious shopmen or polite owners, Mrs. Sedley was herself again almost, and sincerely happy for the first time since their misfortunes.†   (source)
  • —the familiar house of which the lights used to shine so cheerfully at seven o'clock, of which the hall-doors opened so readily, of which the obsequious servants, as you passed up the comfortable stair, sounded your name from landing to landing, until it reached the apartment where jolly old Dives welcomed his friends!†   (source)
  • And if they met Rawdon and his wife by chance—although the former constantly and obsequiously took off his hat, the Miss-Crawley party passed him by with such a frigid and killing indifference, that Rawdon began to despair.†   (source)
  • and in obsequious fondness crowd to his presence   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • ...the most obsequious and subservient to the will and passions of their master.   (source)
  • Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
    That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
    Wears out his time, much like...   (source)
  • But, you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound, In filial obligation, for some term To do obsequious sorrow:   (source)
    obsequious = to yield to the desires of others by serving in a proper role
  • I see you are obsequious in your love,   (source)
    obsequious = excessively eager to flatter or serve
  • "Aye, the master's a bit the worse for illness, sir, as ye can see," he said, obsequiously tugging his forelock.†   (source)
  • The viceregal cavalcade passed, greeted by obsequious policemen, out of Parkgate.†   (source)
  • —Give you good den, my masters, said he with an obsequious bow.†   (source)
  • The cavalcade passed out by the lower gate of Phoenix park saluted by obsequious policemen and proceeded past Kingsbridge along the northern quays.†   (source)
  • Set down, set down your honourable load,— If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,— Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament Th' untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.†   (source)
  • Before him Power Divine his way prepared;
    At his command the uprooted hills retired
    Each to his place; they heard his voice, and went
    Obsequious; Heaven his wonted face renewed,
    And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled.†   (source)
  • History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.†   (source)
  • There is a cave
    Within the mount of God, fast by his throne,
    Where light and darkness in perpetual round
    Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through Heaven
    Grateful vicissitude, like day and night;
    Light issues forth, and at the other door
    Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour
    To veil the Heaven, though darkness there might well
    Seem twilight here: And now went forth the Morn
    Such as in highest Heaven arrayed in gold
    Empyreal; from before her vanished Night,
    Shot through with orient beams; when all the plain
    Covered with thick embattled squadrons bright,
    Chariots, and flamin†   (source)
  • The legislature, with a discretionary power over the salary and emoluments of the Chief Magistrate, could render him as obsequious to their will as they might think proper to make him.†   (source)
  • She heard me thus; and though divinely brought,
    Yet innocence, and virgin modesty,
    Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
    That would be wooed, and not unsought be won,
    Not obvious, not obtrusive, but, retired,
    The more desirable; or, to say all,
    Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought,
    Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned:
    I followed her; she what was honour knew,
    And with obsequious majesty approved
    My pleaded reason.†   (source)
  • Thus, each of the principal branches of the federal government will owe its existence more or less to the favor of the State governments, and must consequently feel a dependence, which is much more likely to beget a disposition too obsequious than too overbearing towards them.†   (source)
  • He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.†   (source)
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