subservient
subservient
Definition
sub·ser·vi·ent (-ənt)
adjective
- that is useful, helpful, or of service, esp. in an inferior or subordinate capacity
- submissive; obsequious
Etymology: L subserviens, prp. of subservire, to subserve
sub·ser′·vi·ently adverb
subservient
Synonyms
subservient
modif.
Subordinate
auxiliary, subsidiary, secondary, ancillary. Docile
submissive, obsequious, servile; see docile.
subservient
Usage Examples
Adjective complement with noun phrase
- make: He made every labor subservient to this noble end.
- keep: And he refreshingly keeps the message subservient to the comedy.
Modifies a noun
- role: Crichton, the butler, performs a subservient role.
- position: His motivation was to prove that the creators of ancient Egyptian civilization were white and that blacks existed only in subservient positions.
- relationship: Most specifically, the subservient relationship with George Bush has been the real cause of Tony Blair's downfall.
- woman: Good idea for subservient women but would not remain secret for long among emancipated women.
- status: By the time the English took over the administration, the Germans had emancipated most vassal chiefdoms from that subservient status.
- partner: However, the other members of the EU are not themselves prepared to play the role of subservient partners.
Modifying Another Word
- totally: For training needs to be totally subservient to service pressures would be inappropriate.
- entirely: Married womens ' lack of property rights made them ciphers in economic and social terms, entirely subservient to their husbands ' will.
- too: Members of the General Assembly lack initiative, and are too subservient in the face of American power.
- not: The trouble is, I'm not really suited to hotel work, I'm just not subservient enough.
- always: To persist in the view that nurses are always subservient to doctors is to do the profession a disservice.
- completely: In these traditional southern Arabian works, the human figure has no life of its own it is completely subservient.
Used with adjective complement
- become: The institutions of state became subservient to the whims of Number 10.
- remain: Such a revision will mean the poorest countries will remain subservient.
- make: Everything was made subservient to ostentation, even wounds, which were often subsequently enlarged for the purpose of boasting a broader scar.
- render: Those weaker or less cunning than himself he could either disregard or render subservient.
Browse dictionary entries near subservient
- subservience
- subserve
- subsere
- subsequently
- subsequent
- subsequence
- subsection
- subscription rights
- subscription
- subscript
- subset
- subshrub
- subside
- subsidiary
- subsidize
- subsidy
- subsist
- subsistence
- subsoil
- subsolar
