SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
subservient
adjective
Excessively obedient or willing to put oneself below others.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Excessively obedient
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topSubservient often criticizes excessive willingness to please or obey. Obedient and deferential can be appropriate without servility.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See subservient in use
The story questions why the adviser remains so subservient to the ruler.
Daria worried that the committee was taking a subservient role by treating the donor's preferences as more important than its own considered judgments.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license