(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
submissive — typically excessively so (so submissive or eager to serve and please that one seems to have no self-respect)or:
relating to the work that requires obeying demeaning commands
or:
slave-like or relating to slaves
You might want to remember this as sounding similar to servant. Both words come from the Latin word for slave (servus).
- She acknowledged her submission in a servile tone.
servile = excessively submissive
- We expect our waiters to give world-class service, but not to be so servile they sacrifice their human dignity.
- To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.Theodore Roosevelt (26th US President)
- He heard the fawning servility in his own voice but was unable to control it.Stephen King -- The Shining
- I grew to like these mountain people, silent, reserved, never servile...Jean Rhys -- Wide Sargasso Sea
- never had he been so servile at the search but now he wanted to show he was innocent—Come on, frisk me!Alexander Solzhenitsyn -- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
- He obeyed then, but the strength of his desire protested against the servility of his conduct;Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary
- From imposition of strict laws to free
Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear
To filial;John Milton -- Paradise Lost - Yes, but I had only the credit of servilely copying such sentences as I was ashamed to put my name to.Jane Austen -- Sense and Sensibility
- She also is dressed with great neatness, and her white, delicate hands betray very little acquaintance with servile toil.Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- I did not, however, aim at gaining his favour by paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, took this other method.Benjamin Franklin -- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- The lieutenant took a look at the bowed servile figure on the bench.Graham Greene -- The Power and the Glory
- I find myself liking only those who are servile.Ayn Rand -- The Fountainhead
- I call you servile ministersWilliam Shakespeare -- King Lear
- But what they want though it smells of death and can be made of India-rubber, at least is not alive, has no will, is servile and won't revolt!Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Crime and Punishment
- ...thou art servile to all the...William Shakespeare -- Measure for Measure
- The effort succeeded, for an instant he unconsciously relapsed into his old servile manner, bent low before me, and actually fawned upon me as he replied.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
- Then, what submission, what cringing and fawning, what servility, what abject humiliation!Charles Dickens -- A Tale of Two Cities
- The crouching servility, usually so acceptable a quality in a slave, did not...Frederick Douglass -- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- ...the house-elf's attitude of creeping servility looked convincing.J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
servile = excessively submissive
servility = excessive submissiveness (showing a lack self-respect)
servile = excessively submissive
servile = submissive (in obeying demeaning commands)
servility = submissiveness
servile = excessively submissive — with no self-respect
servilely = demeaningly obeying commands
servile = appropriate for a servant or slave
servile = excessively submissive
servile = submissive
servile = submissive and eager to serve and please
servile = submissive
servile = submissive
servile = submissive
servile = submissive
servility = behavior of someone who is so excessively submissive or eager to please that they seem to lack self-respect
servility = submissiveness
servility = excessive submissiveness and eagerness to serve