Servile

Quick meaning: Servile is an adjective meaning Excessively eager to please; obsequious.

Meaning

Excessively eager to please; obsequious.

More Meanings

1. Slavish or submissive.
2. (grammar) Not belonging to the original root.
3. (grammar) Not sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceding vowel, like the e in tune.
4. (grammar) An element which forms no part of the original root.
5. A slave; a menial.

Example Sentences

a servile letter

servile flattery servile obedience

Even fortune rules no more, O servile land!

British “subjects” (not citizens, note) are just that: gleefully servile to the monarchy’s institutionalised inequality.

Word Forms

• serviles

Synonyms for servile

Depending on context, synonyms include abject, duteous, meek, slavish, submissive, subservient.

Antonyms for servile

Common opposites include arrogant, bossy, radical, authoritarian, unsubmissive.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include slavish, slavelike, slave, subservient, submissive, obsequious.

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