How to Use submissive in a Sentence

submissive

adjective
  • Chin takes a cleaver to the stereotype of the submissive Asian girl.
    Alamin Yohannes, EW.com, 25 May 2021
  • The priest played the submissive role, even agreeing to drink Crist's urine, the suit charged.
    Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 14 Dec. 2015
  • The band maintained that in the home, women should be submissive to their husbands.
    Leah Sottile, Longreads, 20 July 2019
  • They were taught to be obedient and submissive, even as they were abused.
    Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 June 2022
  • On one side, they’d be too weak and submissive; on the other, too scolding or tedious.
    James Fallows, The Atlantic, 26 Sep. 2016
  • Offred is submissive and free from the struggles that come with fighting against the Gilead machine.
    refinery29.com, 9 May 2018
  • The brand also implies that girls should be sweet and submissive, and should expect a man to come to their rescue in an act of love at first sight.
    Valentina Zarya, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2017
  • People today place a high value on their choices, and as a result, the era of the submissive consumer has come to an end.
    Ildeme Mahinay Koch, Forbes, 13 May 2022
  • Let nature take its course, and a pack of dogs will sort itself into the dominant and submissive roles.
    Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 31 July 2021
  • Caretakers at the zoo described him as small and submissive.
    Sara Harrison, Wired, 28 Oct. 2021
  • There have been charges that women in People of Praise are encouraged to be submissive.
    Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 24 Sep. 2020
  • Whines, Yelps, and Pups in Distress Coyotes make yelps and whines when being submissive or in distress.
    Jay Cassell, Field & Stream, 21 June 2023
  • Submissive or insecure dogs will tend to hide any marks of their presence.
    Answer Fella, Esquire, 27 Feb. 2006
  • Similar to Alexa and Siri, such robots are docile, submissive, and designed to please.
    Harper’s Magazine , 22 June 2022
  • We were tied down to society's ignorant idea of us -- submissive and silent.
    Sherry Cola, CNN, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Treat yourself to foot massages (or find a submissive eager to service you).
    Sophie Saint Thomas, Allure, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Duvall’s acting in the film has been criticized for being over-the-top, and her character has been called weak and submissive.
    Kelsey Ables, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Apr. 2022
  • Her other cat, normally submissive to Lenny, has been hissing and snarling at him.
    Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Corlys bends the knee, but it’s the coughing, exhausted Viserys who is looking submissive.
    Omar L. Gallaga, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Here’s this fleecy white creature, submissive and prepared for the bloodbath soon to come, a pure being, elevated far above the muck.
    Los Angeles Times, 17 June 2022
  • As recently as 2015, women’s rights activists in Cambodia have sought to keep the code, which calls for women to be submissive to men, out of schools.
    Lily Puckett, Teen Vogue, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Bondage is frequently part of impact play, as tying up the submissive, who then consensually can't move, adds to the thrill of the scene.
    Sophie Saint Thomas, Allure, 1 May 2019
  • Muse pushes back on the perception of muses as submissive, a blank canvas rather than one bursting with ideas.
    Elizabeth Djinis, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 May 2022
  • Among other things, the Danvers Statement affirmed the submissive role of women.
    Susan M. Shaw, The Conversation, 13 Apr. 2021
  • The size of the protests suggests a strong challenge to India’s historic fatalism about the role of girls and women as weak, submissive, or expendable.
    The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Apr. 2018
  • Christianity makes the willing and submissive execution of a criminal at the hands of the state the center of the universe.
    Cameron Hilditch, National Review, 10 May 2021
  • She’s not the typical shy, submissive Asian girl that people might expect.
    Lucia Ruan, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Aug. 2022
  • These are highly prized in the worker-bee slot, but not so great in the CEO slot, where this cluster can lead to a tendency to be submissive or acquiescent.
    Neil Senturia, sandiegouniontribune.com, 2 Oct. 2017
  • But these were met with deadly repression in November 2019 and did not make the authorities in Tehran more submissive.
    Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Foreign Affairs, 17 Mar. 2021
  • To put Muslim women in a punk band would challenge the stereotype that Muslim women are submissive, quiet, humorless.
    Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 26 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'submissive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: