Servile

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Servile \Serv"ile\, a. [L. servile, fr. servus a servant or
     slave: cf. F. servile. See {Serve}.]
     1. Of or pertaining to a servant or slave; befitting a
        servant or a slave; proceeding from dependence; hence,
        meanly submissive; slavish; mean; cringing; fawning; as,
        servile flattery; servile fear; servile obedience.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              She must bend the servile knee.       --Thomson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Fearing dying pays death servile breath. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Held in subjection; dependent; enslaved.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Even fortune rules no more, O servile land! --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Gram.)
        (a) Not belonging to the original root; as, a servile
            letter.
        (b) Not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the
            preceeding vowel, as e in tune.
            [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Servile \Serv"ile\, n. (Gram.)
     An element which forms no part of the original root; --
     opposed to {radical}.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  servile
       adj 1: pertaining to or involving slaves; "the servile wars of
              Sicily"
       2: submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior; "spoke in a
          servile tone"; "the incurably servile housekeeper";
          "servile tasks such as floor scrubbing and barn work"
          [ant: {unservile}]
       3: involving slaves; "Brown's attempt at servile insurrection"
          [syn: {servile(a)}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  118 Moby Thesaurus words for "servile":
     abject, abused, accepting, acquiescent, agreeable, apple-polishing,
     ass-kissing, assenting, attendant, attending, base, bootlicking,
     browbeaten, brown-nosing, client, common, complaisant, compliable,
     compliant, complying, consenting, craven, cringing, crouching,
     deferential, demeaning, dependent, despicable, disadvantaged,
     downtrod, downtrodden, fawning, feudal, feudatory, flattering,
     ground down, groveling, helping, henpecked, humble, ignoble,
     in leading strings, in the shade, inferior, infra dig,
     ingratiating, junior, less, lesser, liege, low, lower, lowly, mean,
     mean-spirited, menial, ministering, minor, misused, modest,
     nondissenting, nonresistant, nonresisting, nonresistive, obedient,
     obeisant, obsequious, on bended knee, oppressed, ordered around,
     ordinary, overborne, passive, prone, prostrate, regimented,
     resigned, scurvy, second rank, second string, secondary, serving,
     servitorial, slavish, slimy, smarmy, sordid, sub, subaltern,
     subject, submissive, subordinate, subservient, supine, sycophantic,
     sycophantish, third rank, third string, toadish, toadying,
     toadyish, trampled, tributary, truckling, tyrannized, ugly,
     unassertive, uncomplaining, unctuous, underprivileged, unmanned,
     unresistant, unresisting, vassal, vile, vulgar, waiting,
     wheedling