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
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
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
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
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
See All Example Sentences for servile
Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024
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
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
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
See All Example Sentences for servile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for servile
Adjective
-
These humble movie moments have now become the foundation of a trending dinner party format.—
Elizabeth Fogarty,
Better Homes & Gardens,
27 June 2025
-
The company remains true to the humble ethic of hard work and friendly customer service embodied by the founding family.—
Emma Marsden,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 June 2025
Adjective
-
From small and relatively meek beginnings, proboscideans eventually evolved into herbivorous, elephantine giants with a broad array of different tusk arrangements and shapes.—
Riley Black,
Smithsonian Magazine,
3 Apr. 2025
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That confidence paid off as Farrow received her first Tony nomination for her role as the initially meek homebody Sharon in the play by Jen Silverman, which ran at the Booth Theatre on Broadway from September through December 2024.—
Caitlin Huston,
HollywoodReporter,
31 May 2025
Adjective
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These complaints, however, are one in the same: a kind of abject judgment on what audiences deem as acceptable for a public figure.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
12 June 2025
-
They’re left with nothing other than abject fear about what comes next.—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
22 May 2025
Adjective
-
There, his head was shaved and he was sent to do menial work for other families.—
Jack Healy,
New York Times,
22 May 2025
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Some of the most transformative applications of AI operate far away from the spotlights of Silicon Valley, seen only by back-office workers who are now saving thousands of hours in rote menial work.—
Haokun Qin,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Servile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/servile. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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