servile
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
servile
adj 1: submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior; "spoke in
a servile tone"; "the incurably servile housekeeper";
"servile tasks such as floor scrubbing and barn work"
[ant: {unservile}, {unsubmissive}]
2: relating to or involving slaves or appropriate for slaves or
servants; "Brown's attempt at servile insurrection"; "the
servile wars of Sicily"; "servile work"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Servile \Serv"ile\, a. [L. servile, fr. servus a servant or
slave: cf. F. servile. See {Serve}.]
1. Of or pertaining to a servant or slave; befitting a
servant or a slave; proceeding from dependence; hence,
meanly submissive; slavish; mean; cringing; fawning; as,
servile flattery; servile fear; servile obedience.
[1913 Webster]
She must bend the servile knee. --Thomson.
[1913 Webster]
Fearing dying pays death servile breath. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Held in subjection; dependent; enslaved.
[1913 Webster]
Even fortune rules no more, O servile land! --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Gram.)
(a) Not belonging to the original root; as, a servile
letter.
(b) Not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the
preceeding vowel, as e in tune.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
118 Moby Thesaurus words for "servile":
abject, abused, accepting, acquiescent, agreeable, apple-polishing,
ass-kissing, assenting, attendant, attending, base, bootlicking,
browbeaten, brown-nosing, client, common, complaisant, compliable,
compliant, complying, consenting, craven, cringing, crouching,
deferential, demeaning, dependent, despicable, disadvantaged,
downtrod, downtrodden, fawning, feudal, feudatory, flattering,
ground down, groveling, helping, henpecked, humble, ignoble,
in leading strings, in the shade, inferior, infra dig,
ingratiating, junior, less, lesser, liege, low, lower, lowly, mean,
mean-spirited, menial, ministering, minor, misused, modest,
nondissenting, nonresistant, nonresisting, nonresistive, obedient,
obeisant, obsequious, on bended knee, oppressed, ordered around,
ordinary, overborne, passive, prone, prostrate, regimented,
resigned, scurvy, second rank, second string, secondary, serving,
servitorial, slavish, slimy, smarmy, sordid, sub, subaltern,
subject, submissive, subordinate, subservient, supine, sycophantic,
sycophantish, third rank, third string, toadish, toadying,
toadyish, trampled, tributary, truckling, tyrannized, ugly,
unassertive, uncomplaining, unctuous, underprivileged, unmanned,
unresistant, unresisting, vassal, vile, vulgar, waiting,
wheedling
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