sub·ser·vi·ent

(səb-sûr′vē-ənt)

adj.

1. Subordinate in capacity or function.

2. Obsequious; servile.

3. Useful as a means or an instrument; serving to promote an end.

[Latin subserviēns, subservient-, present participle of subservīre, to subserve; see subserve.]

sub·ser′vi·ence, sub·ser′vi·en·cy n.

sub·ser′vi·ent·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

subservient

(səbˈsɜːvɪənt)

adj

1. obsequious in behaviour or attitude

2. serving as a means to an end

3. a less common word for subordinate²

[C17: from Latin subserviēns complying with, from subservīre to subserve]

subˈserviently adv

subˈservience, subˈserviency n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sub•ser•vi•ent

(səbˈsɜr vi ənt)

adj.

1. serving or acting in a subordinate capacity; subordinate.

2. servile; excessively submissive; obsequious.

3. useful in promoting a purpose or end.

[1625–35; < Latin subservient-, s. of subserviēns, present participle of subservīre to subserve; see -ent]

sub•ser′vi•ence, sub•ser′vi•en•cy, n.

sub•ser′vi•ent•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	subservient - compliant and obedient to authority; "editors and journalists who express opinions in print that are opposed to the interests of the rich are dismissed and replaced by subservient ones"-G. B. Shaw subordinate - subject or submissive to authority or the control of another; "a subordinate kingdom"
	2.	subservient - serving or acting as a means or aid; "instrumental in solving the crime" implemental, instrumental helpful - providing assistance or serving a useful function
	3.	subservient - abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant; "slavish devotion to her job ruled her life"; "a slavish yes-man to the party bosses"- S.H.Adams; "she has become submissive and subservient" slavish, submissive servile - 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"

subservient

adjective

1. servile, submissive, deferential, subject, inferior, abject, sycophantic, slavish, obsequious, truckling, bootlicking (informal) Her willingness to be subservient to her children isolated her.
servile bossy, domineering, overbearing, superior, overriding, rebellious, wilful, disobedient, bolshie

2. subordinate, subsidiary, accessory, auxiliary, conducive, ancillary The individual's needs are seen as subservient to the group's.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

subservient

adjective

1. In a position of subordination:

collateral, dependent, subject, subordinate.

2. Excessively eager to serve or obey:

menial, obsequious, servile, slavish.

Translations

sujet

remissivit...servile

subservient

[səbˈsɜːvɪənt] ADJ

1. [person] (= submissive) → sumiso (pej) (= servile) → servil
to be subservient to sb → someterse a algn

2. (= secondary) → subordinado (to a)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

subservient

[səbˈsɜː^rviənt] adj

(= servile) → soumis(e)

(= less important) subservient to sth → soumis(e) à qch

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

subservient

adj (pej) → unterwürfig (to gegenüber); (form) → unterworfen (→ to +dat)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

subservient

[səbˈsɜːvɪənt] adj subservient (to) → sottomesso/a (a)

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

In the first place then, some one may doubt whether the getting of money is the same thing as economy, or whether it is a part of it, or something subservient to it; and if so, whether it is as the art of making shuttles is to the art of weaving, or the art of making brass to that of statue founding, for they are not of the same service; for the one supplies the tools, the other the matter: by the matter I mean the subject out of which the work is finished, as wool for the cloth and brass for the statue.

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There now's a patched professor in Queen Nature's granite-founded College; but methinks he's too subservient. Where wert thou born?

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I thought our judgments were given us merely to be subservient to those of neighbours.

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I told him, "that in the kingdom of Tribnia, (3) by the natives called Langdon, (4) where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies.

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It is observed that select corps may be formed, composed of the young and ardent, who may be rendered subservient to the views of arbitrary power.

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There is, or used to be, a belief in this part of the world that the Caswall family had some strange power of making the wills of other persons subservient to their own.

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It was a street of small shops subservient to the needs of poor people, and about the middle of it, on the left as I walked down, was the Hotel des Belges.

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Did he see himself, a white-haired decrepit man, bending his hitherto inflexible theories to appointed circumstances; making his facts and figures subservient to Faith, Hope, and Charity; and no longer trying to grind that Heavenly trio in his dusty little mills?

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It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good.

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Money must be so subservient to gentility as never to be worth a thought.

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It is not too much to say, that the deliberate employer of a cut-glass shade, is either radically deficient in taste, or blindly subservient to the caprices of fashion.

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He spoke with childish arrogance strangely at variance with the subservient position he occupied beneath the veranda.

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