subservience

subservience
    n 1: the condition of being something that is useful in reaching
         an end or carrying out a plan; "all his actions were in
         subservience to the general plan"
    2: in a subservient state [syn: {subservience},
       {subservientness}]
    3: abject or cringing submissiveness [syn: {obsequiousness},
       {servility}, {subservience}]
    

Subservience \Sub*serv"i*ence\, Subserviency \Sub*serv"i*en*cy\,
   n.
   The quality or state of being subservient; instrumental
   fitness or use; hence, willingness to serve another's
   purposes; in a derogatory sense, servility.
   [1913 Webster]

         The body wherein appears much fitness, use, and
         subserviency to infinite functions.      --Bentley.
   [1913 Webster]

         There is a regular subordination and subserviency among
         all the parts to beneficial ends.        --Cheyne.
   [1913 Webster]
    

48 Moby Thesaurus words for "subservience":
      abjectness, agreeability, agreeableness, back seat, baseness,
      biddability, compliableness, docility, ductility, facility,
      flexibility, helotism, helotry, humbleness, humility, inferiority,
      juniority, lower status, lowliness, malleability, meanness,
      menialness, minority, moldability, peonage, plasticity, pliability,
      pliancy, satellite status, second fiddle, second string,
      secondariness, serfdom, service, servility, servitorship, slavery,
      slavishness, subjecthood, subjection, submissiveness, subordinacy,
      subordinate role, subordination, subserviency, third string,
      tractability, yieldingness