as in humble
showing, expressing, or offered in a spirit of humility or unseemly submissiveness
had always maintained a servile attitude around people with money
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Recent Examples of servile
That this was news was hard to believe, since complaints about servile female voices had been made not for years but for decades.
—
Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024
His co-stars, like Will Ferrell’s savage Mugatu, Owen Wilson’s stoner hottie Hansel, and Nathan Lee Graham’s servile Todd — all so precise and well-defined in the original’s ravelike milieu — are doomed to retrace their old steps here.
—Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024
Some Hawaiian cultural experts say aloha is a complex and fluid idea, too often misconstrued as a sweet and servile way of tolerating visitors.
—Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023
These officials could, in turn, redistribute some of their private goods among their own servile lieutenants, but the monarch retained ultimate power to grant or revoke their privileged status.
—Serhiy Kudelia, Foreign Affairs, 27 Feb. 2014
See All Example Sentences for servile
Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024
His co-stars, like Will Ferrell’s savage Mugatu, Owen Wilson’s stoner hottie Hansel, and Nathan Lee Graham’s servile Todd — all so precise and well-defined in the original’s ravelike milieu — are doomed to retrace their old steps here.
—Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024
Some Hawaiian cultural experts say aloha is a complex and fluid idea, too often misconstrued as a sweet and servile way of tolerating visitors.
—Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023
These officials could, in turn, redistribute some of their private goods among their own servile lieutenants, but the monarch retained ultimate power to grant or revoke their privileged status.
—Serhiy Kudelia, Foreign Affairs, 27 Feb. 2014
See All Example Sentences for servile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for servile
Adjective
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From humble beginnings of small-scale personal gardens, the company has since evolved to managing large-scale estates.—
Nia Bowers,
USA Today,
28 Oct. 2025
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In The Furious, when his daughter Rainy is abducted, humble tradesman Wang Wei is thrust into a deadly underworld of corruption and violence.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Tessa Thompson stars as the willful heroine, married to a rather meek academic, George Tesman (Tom Bateman), who’s angling for an important university position.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
22 Oct. 2025
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Employment growth is meek, but the labor market is holding steady.—
Samantha Subin,
CNBC,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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His hair is the kind of shaggy that suggests abject neglect more than overpriced Hollywood coiffure.—
Amanda Petrusich,
New Yorker,
17 Oct. 2025
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Ask the tweenagers who won’t stop saying both numbers, to the abject confusion of their parents.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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There were dozens of other US fugitives of justice living in Cuba, many of them would-be revolutionaries that had arrived on the island thinking Castro’s government would provide them the military training to become the next Che Guevara but instead they were given menial jobs and forgotten.—
Patrick Oppmann,
CNN Money,
26 Sep. 2025
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Businesses don’t necessarily hire people solely based on their ability to schedule meetings, fill out paperwork or submit expense reports, even though these menial tasks can take up a significant portion of an employee’s typical workday.—
Rohan Joshi,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Servile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/servile. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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