Subservience

3 definitions found

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

  Subservience \Sub*serv"i*ence\, Subserviency \Sub*serv"i*en*cy\,
     n.
     The quality or state of being subservient; instrumental
     fitness or use; hence, willingness to serve another's
     purposes; in a derogatory sense, servility.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           The body wherein appears much fitness, use, and
           subserviency to infinite functions.      --Bentley.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           There is a regular subordination and subserviency among
           all the parts to beneficial ends.        --Cheyne.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  subservience
       n 1: the condition of being something that is useful in reaching
            an end or carrying out a plan; "all his actions were in
            subservience to the general plan"
       2: in a subservient state [syn: {subservientness}]
       3: abject or cringing submissiveness [syn: {obsequiousness}, {servility}]

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

  48 Moby Thesaurus words for "subservience":
     abjectness, agreeability, agreeableness, back seat, baseness,
     biddability, compliableness, docility, ductility, facility,
     flexibility, helotism, helotry, humbleness, humility, inferiority,
     juniority, lower status, lowliness, malleability, meanness,
     menialness, minority, moldability, peonage, plasticity, pliability,
     pliancy, satellite status, second fiddle, second string,
     secondariness, serfdom, service, servility, servitorship, slavery,
     slavishness, subjecthood, subjection, submissiveness, subordinacy,
     subordinate role, subordination, subserviency, third string,
     tractability, yieldingness