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

This is a consequence of complaints about the subservient and obliging female voices of Sky and, earlier, of Siri and Alexa. —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024

And the subservient leadership training that the program went through over the summer — a three-day, approximately five-hour course that Jeremiah, who has been at the school for 21 years, insisted his coaches and players take — proved crucial amid this fall’s adversity. —Kyle Newman, The Denver Post, 4 Oct. 2024

There seemed to be a collective sigh of relief—almost a joke—that the actual year was nowhere near the threat of a subservient dictatorship. —Spin Staff, SPIN, 30 Sep. 2024

Alongside online schools, international efforts are ramping up to educate teenage girls and women, who are all but confined to their homes by a regime that sees them as a subservient underclass. —Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 15 Aug. 2024

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