subservient
adjective
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How Should You Use subservient?
Since sub- means "below", it emphasizes the lower position of the person in the subservient one. Soldiers of a given rank are always subservient to those of a higher rank; this subservience is symbolized by the requirement that they salute their superior at every opportunity. Women have often been forced into subservient relationships with men. A small nation may feel subservient to its more powerful neighbor, obliged to obey even when it doesn't want to. So subservience usually brings with it a good dose of resentment.
Examples of subservient in a Sentence
Eugene Linden, Time, 6 Sept. 1999
That's why many believe that I have the right to preach but not to pastor. For a woman to be a pastor would mean that men would have to submit and be subservient to a woman.
—Chryll Crews, Ms., January/February 1998
As for a "European Europe," allied with but not subservient to the United States, providing for its own defense and diplomacy and practicing detente with Moscow, de Gaulle did not achieve it in his lifetime, but there was at least a beginning.
—Stanley Hoffmann, New York Times Book Review, 20 Mar. 1983
She refused to take a subservient role in their marriage.
David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 18 May 2025
Unlike the two main parties in the United States, Fidesz holds no primaries, and it has been systematically deprived of internal diversity because all of its senior ranks are subservient to Orban.
—BÁlint Madlovics, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2025
Despite working in a position of power within the ecosystem of the hotel, they are still essentially subservient to all of their guests, if not significantly less well off.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 3 Apr. 2025
We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 20 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for subservient
Cite this Entry
“Subservient.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subservient. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
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subservient
adjective
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