servility

American  

[sur-vil-i-tee] / ˌsɜrˈvɪl ɪ ti /

Rarely servileness

noun

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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Other Word Forms

• nonservileness
  noun
• nonservility
  noun
• overservileness
  noun
• overservility
  noun

Etymology

Origin of servility

First recorded in 1525–35; servil(e) ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )

Example Sentences

He is perfectly genteel and civil, very polite to the Ladies, respectful and submissive to his Lord and Master, but without Flattery or Servility.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

Servility of extended hand or passive brain is the last quality that a mystic of the nobler kind will demand or desire in his auditors.

From William Blake A Critical Essay by Swinburne, Algernon Charles

His tips are insults, and his reward Servility instead of service.

From The Itching Palm A Study of the Habit of Tipping in America by Scott, William R

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

Servility, meanness, venality, time-serving, and a disbelief in virtue diffused themselves over the nation like a pestilential miasma, the depressing influence of which was heavy, even upon those souls which individually resisted the poison.

From Milton by Pattison, Mark