subservient

adjective

sub·​ser·​vi·​ent səb-ˈsər-vē-ənt 

1

: useful in an inferior capacity : subordinate

2

: serving to promote some end

3

: obsequiously submissive : truckling

subserviently adverb

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How Should You Use subservient?

Since sub- means "below", it emphasizes the lower position of the person in the subservient one. Soldiers of a given rank are always subservient to those of a higher rank; this subservience is symbolized by the requirement that they salute their superior at every opportunity. Women have often been forced into subservient relationships with men. A small nation may feel subservient to its more powerful neighbor, obliged to obey even when it doesn't want to. So subservience usually brings with it a good dose of resentment.

Examples of subservient in a Sentence

Sally Boysen, a psychologist at Ohio State University, probed the degree to which a chimp's ability to reason is subservient to the animal's desires. —Eugene Linden, Time, 6 Sept. 1999

That's why many believe that I have the right to preach but not to pastor. For a woman to be a pastor would mean that men would have to submit and be subservient to a woman. —Chryll Crews, Ms., January/February 1998

As for a "European Europe," allied with but not subservient to the United States, providing for its own defense and diplomacy and practicing detente with Moscow, de Gaulle did not achieve it in his lifetime, but there was at least a beginning. —Stanley Hoffmann, New York Times Book Review, 20 Mar. 1983

She refused to take a subservient role in their marriage.

Recent Examples on the Web

As an angry teenager who develops a passionate hatred for everything about her life, particularly her stooped, seemingly subservient mother, Inseon runs away to Seoul, falls through a snowbank into a pit, and nearly dies. —Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 14 Jan. 2025

Entertainment Weekly has your exclusive look at the latest trailer (above), which reveals for the first time that Josh's girlfriend Iris (Heretic's Sophie Thatcher) is an android designed to be the perfect, subservient partner. —Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 8 Jan. 2025

The other subservient billionaires in the cartoon include Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times. —The Editors Of Artnews, ARTnews.com, 8 Jan. 2025

Hemingway, according to literary biographer Scott Donaldson, quickly become the target of a confidence-bruising onslaught designed to humble him and mold him into a subservient, obedient journalist. —Emily Zarevich, JSTOR Daily, 6 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin subservient-, subserviens, present participle of subservire — see subserve

First Known Use

circa 1626, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

subservient

adjective

sub·​ser·​vi·​ent səb-ˈsər-vē-ənt 

1

: useful in an inferior capacity : subordinate

2

: inclined or willing to submit to others : submissive

subserviently adverb