OBSEQUIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does obsequious mean? 

• OBSEQUIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective OBSEQUIOUS has 2 senses:

1. attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery

2. attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner

  Familiarity information: OBSEQUIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OBSEQUIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery

Synonyms:

bootlicking; fawning; obsequious; sycophantic; toadyish

Similar:

insincere (lacking sincerity)

Derivation:

obsequiousness (abject or cringing submissiveness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner

Context example:

obsequious shop assistants

Similar:

servile (submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior)

Derivation:

obsequiousness (abject or cringing submissiveness)

 Context examples 

Personally I felt shy and uncomfortable at this obsequious adoration, and I read the same feeling in the faces of Roxton and Summerlee, but Challenger expanded like a flower in the sun.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were afflicted—or blessed—with something of his own obsequious suavity.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At such a moment, the arrival of her friend was a sincere pleasure to Elizabeth, though in the course of their meetings she must sometimes think the pleasure dearly bought, when she saw Mr. Darcy exposed to all the parading and obsequious civility of her husband.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter—the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“There are three methods, by which a man may rise to be chief minister. The first is, by knowing how, with prudence, to dispose of a wife, a daughter, or a sister; the second, by betraying or undermining his predecessor; and the third is, by a furious zeal, in public assemblies, against the corruptions of the court. But a wise prince would rather choose to employ those who practise the last of these methods; because such zealots prove always the most obsequious and subservient to the will and passions of their master. That these ministers, having all employments at their disposal, preserve themselves in power, by bribing the majority of a senate or great council; and at last, by an expedient, called an act of indemnity” (whereof I described the nature to him), “they secure themselves from after-reckonings, and retire from the public laden with the spoils of the nation.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)