timeserver

American  

[tahym-sur-ver] / ˈtaɪmˌsɜr vər /

noun

1. a person who shapes their conduct to conform to the opinions of the time or of persons in power, especially for selfish ends.

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timeserver British  

/ ˈtaɪmˌsɜːvə /

noun

1. a person who compromises and changes his or her opinions, way of life, etc, to suit the current fashions

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Other Word Forms

• timeservingness
  noun
• timeserving
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of timeserver

First recorded in 1565–75; time + server

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

timeserver

The problem is bucked to Carlton-Browne of Miscellaneous Territories, a timeserver whose troutlike face mirrors his intelligence.

From Time Magazine Archive

Many Catholic observers, nonetheless, believe Cardinal Innitzer is no timeserver but a sincere, bewildered wrong-guesser who believed that Catholicism could honestly come to terms with Hitlerism.

From Time Magazine Archive

"But Captain Solis is a nobody ... a timeserver."

From The Underdogs, a Story of the Mexican Revolution by E. (Enrique) Munguía

He scorned the ways of the demagogue and the timeserver, and believed that "men should be what they seem."

From Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia) Delivered in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, Fifty-Second Congress, First Session by Various

If he was a timeserver and leagued with my Lord Warwick's faction in the Company, he was a jovial sinner.

From To Have and to Hold by Mary Johnston

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