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.
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She must bend the servile knee. --Thomson.
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Fearing dying pays death servile breath. --Shak.
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2. Held in subjection; dependent; enslaved.
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Even fortune rules no more, O servile land! --Pope.
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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.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Servile \Serv"ile\, n. (Gram.)
An element which forms no part of the original root; --
opposed to radical.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
servile
adj 1: pertaining to or involving slaves; "the servile wars of
Sicily"
2: 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]
3: involving slaves; "Brown's attempt at servile insurrection"
[syn: servile(a)]
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
servile(a)
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