kowtowing 1 of 2

adjective

Definition of kowtowingnext
as in subordinate

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

kowtowing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of kowtow
as in fussing
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior you can try kowtowing to the boss, but he'll see right through you

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for kowtowing
  1. subordinate
  2. servile
  3. obsequious
  4. subservient
  5. slavish
  6. obedient
  7. submissive
  8. docile
Adjective
  • To salvage the 155th Mechanized Brigade, a unit that Ukraine, France and Poland spent months and millions of dollars training and equipping, Ukrainian leaders have begun assigning its fresh but inexperienced subordinate units to the weary but experienced brigades in the Pokrovsk sector.
    David Axe, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2025
  • Despite a propaganda campaign encouraging all Americans to come together and do their part to defeat the Axis and totalitarianism, the U.S. military remained rigidly segregated with people of color subjugated into subordinate roles and Black soldiers discriminated against abroad and at home.
    Tracie Canada / Made by History, TIME, 1 Jan. 2025
Definition of subordinate
Adjective
  • His co-stars, like Will Ferrell’s savage Mugatu, Owen Wilson’s stoner hottie Hansel, and Nathan Lee Graham’s servile Todd — all so precise and well-defined in the original’s ravelike milieu — are doomed to retrace their old steps here.
    Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024
  • These officials could, in turn, redistribute some of their private goods among their own servile lieutenants, but the monarch retained ultimate power to grant or revoke their privileged status.
    Serhiy Kudelia, Foreign Affairs, 27 Feb. 2014
Definition of servile
Adjective
  • There were cover stories on him and obsequious profiles.
    Cory Franklin, Twin Cities, 2 Jan. 2025
  • Schulz is obsequious, either chummily laughing along to whatever is being said or clearly waiting for his turn to talk.
    Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024
Definition of obsequious
Adjective
  • 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
  • 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
Definition of subservient
Adjective
  • Yet in Kim’s slavish dedication to the Jeju haenyeo’s testimony, many questions that arise in this setting are left unexplored.
    Geoffrey Bunting, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2024
  • By the beginning of 1956, some American communists openly blamed the poor state of their party on Moscow’s ideological inflexibility—and their own leaders’ slavish obedience to Soviet officials.
    Jeremy Friedman, Foreign Affairs, 17 July 2024
Definition of slavish
Adjective
  • His oxygen tank sat at his knees like an obedient mastiff.
    Brandon Taylor, The Atlantic, 4 Jan. 2025
  • Anyone who meets the gentle, obedient boy would never call him that.
    Bebe Hodges, USA TODAY, 15 Nov. 2024
Definition of obedient
Adjective
  • The book equates being female with being submissive.
    Brittany Wallman, Miami Herald, 2 Jan. 2025
  • Over time, this dynamic creates a destructive loop, with the dominant partner tightening their grip and the submissive losing their sense of self.
    Mark Travers, Forbes, 16 Dec. 2024
Definition of submissive
Adjective
  • Lead actor Nathan Meister returns to the role of Henry Oldfield, the sheep-phobic son of a farmer who discovers his twisted older brother has been carrying out dangerous genetic experiences on his livestock, which transform them from docile vegetarians to ruthless, carnivorous killers.
    Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2024
  • What maybe gets forgotten is that the Old Course was especially docile that week.
    Brendan Quinn, The Athletic, 18 July 2024
Definition of docile
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near kowtowing

kowtowed

kowtowing

kowtows

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Kowtowing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/kowtowing. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Using Bullet Points ( • )

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

More Commonly Misspelled Words
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

Top 12 Sophisticated Compliments

Word of the Year 2024 | Polarization

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
white rubber duck stands out in a row of yellow ducks
Odd Word Out: Synonyms Quiz Figure out which word isn't like the others.