subservient

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: sub=ser=vi=ent

CIDE DICTIONARY

subservient, a. [L. subserviens, -entis, p. pr. See Subserve.].

 Fitted or disposed to subserve; useful in an inferior capacity; serving to promote some end; subordinate; hence, servile, truckling.  [1913 Webster]
"Scarce ever reading anything which he did not make subservient in one kind or other."  [1913 Webster]
"These ranks of creatures are subservient one to another."  [1913 Webster]
"Their temporal ambition was wholly subservient to their proselytizing spirit."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

subservient, adj.
1 cringing; obsequious.
2 (usu. foll. by to) serving as a means; instrumental.
3 (usu. foll. by to) subordinate.

Derivative

subservience n. subserviency n. subserviently adv.

Etymology

L subserviens subservient- (as SUBSERVE)

THESAURUS

subservient

abject, accepting, accessory, acquiescent, adjuvant, agential, agentival, agentive, agreeable, ancillary, appurtenant, assenting, assistant, assisting, auxiliary, base, client, collateral, common, complaisant, compliable, compliant, complying, conducive, consenting, contributory, cowering, cringing, crouching, deferential, demeaning, dependent, disadvantaged, employable, facilitating, favoring, fawning, feudal, feudatory, forwarding, fostering, handy, helpful, helping, humble, ignoble, in the shade, inferior, infra dig, instrumental, intermediary, junior, less, lesser, liege, low, lower, lowly, mean, mediating, mediatorial, menial, ministerial, ministering, ministrant, minor, modest, nondissenting, nonresistant, nonresisting, nonresistive, nurtural, nutricial, obedient, obeisant, obsequious, on bended knee, ordinary, passive, promoting, prone, prostrate, resigned, second rank, second string, secondary, serviceable, servile, serving, slavish, sub, subaltern, subject, submissive, subordinate, subsidiary, supine, third rank, third string, tributary, truckling, unassertive, uncomplaining, underprivileged, unresistant, unresisting, useful, vassal, vulgar

ROGET THESAURUS

subservient

Instrumentality

N instrumentality, aid, subservience, subserviency, mediation, intervention, medium, intermedium, vehicle, hand, agency, minister, handmaid, midwife, accoucheur, accoucheuse, obstetrician, gobetween, cat's-paw, stepping-stone, opener, key, master key, passkey, latchkey, open sesame, passport, passe-partout, safe-conduct, password, instrument, expedient, means, instrumental, useful, ministerial, subservient, mediatorial, intermediate, intervening, conducive, through, by, per, whereby, thereby, hereby, by the agency of, by dint of, by virtue of, in virtue of, through the medium of, along with, on the shoulders of, by means of, by the aid of, with the aid of, per fas et nefas, by fair means or foul, somehow, somehow or other, by hook or by crook.

Utility

N utility, usefulness, efficacy, efficiency, adequacy, service, use, stead, avail, help, applicability, subservience, function, value, worth, money's worth, productiveness, cui bono, utilization, step in the right direction, common weal, commonwealth public good, public interest, utilitarianism, useful, of use, serviceable, proficuous, good for, subservient, conducive, subsidiary, advantageous, profitable, gainful, remunerative, worth one's salt, valuable, prolific, adequate, efficient, efficacious, effective, effectual, expedient, applicable, available, ready, handy, at hand, tangible, commodious, adaptable, of all work, usefully, pro bono publico.

Use

N use, employ, employment, exercise, exercitation, application, appliance, adhibition, disposal, consumption, agency, usufruct, usefulness, benefit, recourse, resort, avail, utilization, service, wear, usage, in use, used, well-worn, well-trodden, useful, subservient.

Aid

N aid, aidance, assistance, help, opitulation, succor, support, lift, advance, furtherance, promotion, coadjuvancy, patronage, championship, countenance, favor, interest, advocacy, sustentation, subvention, alimentation, nutrition, nourishment, eutrophy, manna in the wilderness, food, means, ministry, ministration, subministration, accommodation, relief, rescue, help at a dead lift, supernatural aid, deus ex machina, supplies, reinforcements, reenforcements, succors, contingents, recruits, support, adjunct, ally, aiding, auxiliary, adjuvant, helpful, coadjuvant, subservient, ministrant, ancillary, accessory, subsidiary, at one's beck, at one's beck and call, friendly, amicable, favorable, propitious, well-disposed, neighborly, obliging, with the aid, by the aid of, on behalf of, in behalf of, in aid of, in the service of, in the name of, in favor of, in furtherance of, on account of, for the sake of, on the part of, non obstante, Int, help!, save us!, to the rescue!, alterum alterius auxilio eget, God befriend us as our cause is just, at your service.

Tendency

N tendency, aptness, aptitude, proneness, proclivity, bent, turn, tone, bias, set, leaning to, predisposition, inclination, propensity, susceptibility, conatus, nisus, liability, quality, nature, temperament, idiocrasy, idiosyncrasy, cast, vein, grain, humor, mood, drift, conduciveness, conducement, applicability, subservience, tending, conducive, working towards, in a fair way to, calculated to, liable, subservient, useful, subsidiary, for, whither.