servility
Americannoun
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the quality of being slavishly submissive or fawning.
The place was full of florists and decorators, all striving to outdo each other in servility to the bride-to-be.
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the quality of being extremely imitative or unoriginal, especially in the arts.
Servility to a French European tradition may explain why these 19th-century poets failed to leave a mark on French Canada’s literary history.
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the state or condition of being a slave or servant.
Under Guru Nanak, a people who had lived for centuries in total servility became valiant warriors against their oppressors.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of servility
First recorded in 1525–35; servil(e) ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )
Vocabulary lists containing servility
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Servility of spirit is not gentleness but weakness, and if allowed, under the specious appearances it sometimes puts on, will lead to the most dangerous compliances.
From Essays on Various Subjects Principally Designed for Young Ladies by More, Hannah
Servility, with its attendant hypocrisy and deceit, is conspicuously absent; and the general spirit of independence, if sometimes needlessly boorish in its manifestations, is at least sturdy and manly.
From The Land of Contrasts A Briton's View of His American Kin by Muirhead, James F. (James Fullarton)
So great is the Wickedness of some Men, & the stupid Servility of others, that one would be almost inclined to conclude that Communities cannot be free.
From The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 4 by Cushing, Harry Alonzo
On the side of the head we have Modesty and Reverence, the former running down into Bashfulness and the latter into Humility or Servility.
From Buchanan's Journal of Man, November 1887 Volume 1, Number 10 by Buchanan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rodes)
Such hast thou armed, the minstrelsy of Heaven, Servility with freedom to contend, As both their deeds compared this day shall prove.
From Paradise Lost by Milton, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
