Definitions for servile
ˈsɜr vɪl, -vaɪlservile

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. servileadjective

   submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior

   "spoke in a servile tone"; "the incurably servile housekeeper"; "servile tasks such as floor scrubbing and barn work"

2. servile(a)adjective

   relating to or involving slaves or appropriate for slaves or servants

   "Brown's attempt at servile insurrection"; "the servile wars of Sicily"; "servile work"

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. servilenoun

   An element which forms no part of the original root.

2. servileadjective

   of or pertaining to a slave

3. servileadjective

   submissive or slavish

4. Etymology: From servilis.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Servileadjective

   Etymology: servil, French; serviles, Latin.

   1. Slavish; dependant; mean.

   Fight and die, is death destroying death:
   Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath. William Shakespeare.

   From imposition of strict laws to free
   Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear
   To filial. John Milton.

   Ev’n fortune rules no more a servile land,
   Where exil’d tyrants still by turns command. Alexander Pope.

   2. Fawning; cringing.

   The most servile flattery is lodged the most easily in the grossest capacity; for their ordinary conceit draweth a yielding to their greaters, and then have they not wit to discern the right degrees of duty. Philip Sidney.

   She must bend the servile knee,
   And fawning take the splendid robber’s boon. James Thomson.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. servile

   Servile refers to having an excessive willingness to serve or please others, typically indicating a lack of self-respect or dignity. This term is often used to describe behavior that is submissive, slavish, or fawning.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Servileadjective

   of or pertaining to a servant or slave; befitting a servant or a slave; proceeding from dependence; hence, meanly submissive; slavish; mean; cringing; fawning; as, servile flattery; servile fear; servile obedience

2. Servileadjective

   held in subjection; dependent; enslaved

3. Servileadjective

   not belonging to the original root; as, a servile letter

4. Servileadjective

   not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceeding vowel, as e in tune

5. Servilenoun

   an element which forms no part of the original root; -- opposed to radical

6. Etymology: [L. servile, fr. servus a servant or slave: cf. F. servile. See Serve.]

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Servile

   sėr′vīl, adj. pertaining to a slave or servant: slavish: meanly submissive: cringing: obedient: (gram.) secondary or subordinate.—n. a slave, a menial.—adv. Ser′vilely.—ns. Ser′vilism, the spirit of a servile class; Servil′ity (obs. Ser′vileness), state or quality of being servile: slavery: obsequiousness; Ser′ving-maid, a female domestic servant; Ser′ving-man, a male servant: a professed lover.—adj. Ser′vious, obsequious.—ns. Ser′vīte, one of a mendicant order of monks and nuns founded in Italy in the 13th century; Servit′ium (law), service; Ser′vitor, one who serves: a servant: a follower or adherent: a male servant, a menial: soldier: formerly in Oxford, an undergraduate partly supported by the college, his duty to wait on the fellows and gentlemen commoners at table; Ser′vitorship, the office or condition of a servitor; Ser′vitūde, state of being a slave: slavery: state of slavish dependence: menial service: compulsory servitude: (law) a burden affecting land or other heritable subjects, by which the proprietor is either restrained from the full use of his property or is obliged to suffer another to do certain acts upon it: service rendered in the army or navy: (obs.) servants collectively; Ser′vitūre (Milt.), servants collectively.—v.i. Ser′vulate.

Anagrams for servile »

1. relives

2. reviles

How to pronounce servile?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say servile in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of servile in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of servile in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of servile in a Sentence

1. Thomas Jefferson:

   Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

2. William Hazlitt:

   Fashon is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism it is haughty, trifling, affected, servile, despotic, mean and ambitious, precise and fantastical, all in a breath -- tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.

3. Greville:

   I hardly know so true a mark of a little mind as the servile imitation of others.

4. Theodore Roosevelt:

   To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

5. Cyril Connolly:

   The English masses are lovable: they are kind, decent, tolerant, practical and not stupid. The tragedy is that they are too many of them, and that they are aimless, having outgrown the servile functions for which they were encouraged to multiply. One day these huge crowds will have to seize power because there will be nothing else for them to do, and yet they neither demand power nor are ready to make use of it; they will learn only to be bored in a new way.

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References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=servile
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Servile
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=servile
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/servile
6. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=servile