SERVILITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does servility mean? 

• SERVILITY (noun)
  The noun SERVILITY has 1 sense:

1. abject or cringing submissiveness

  Familiarity information: SERVILITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SERVILITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Abject or cringing submissiveness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

obsequiousness; servility; subservience

Hypernyms ("servility" is a kind of...):

submissiveness (the trait of being willing to yield to the will of another person or a superior force etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "servility"):

sycophancy (fawning obsequiousness)

Derivation:

servile (submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior)

 Context examples 

An hereditary servility, no doubt, was responsible.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There is a mixture of servility and self-importance in his letter, which promises well.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Though I had long known that his servility was false, and all his pretences knavish and hollow, I had had no adequate conception of the extent of his hypocrisy, until I now saw him with his mask off.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He preferred suffering in freedom to all the happiness of a comfortable servility.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He stirred his coffee round and round, he sipped it, he felt his chin softly with his grisly hand, he looked at the fire, he looked about the room, he gasped rather than smiled at me, he writhed and undulated about, in his deferential servility, he stirred and sipped again, but he left the renewal of the conversation to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Yes, sir,” the cook eagerly interpolated, with appeasing and apologetic servility.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)