as in servility
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Recent Examples of subservience
Ray is the leader of a biker gang and demands utter subservience.
—
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2025
How does party capture — the subservience of entire systems — factor into this?
—Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2025
People who climb upward by sacrificing their integrity to slavish subservience almost always fall on their faces eventually.
—Robert B. Reich, Hartford Courant, 21 Aug. 2025
There is no fog of subservience surrounding the concept.
—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Aug. 2019
See All Example Sentences for subservience
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2025
How does party capture — the subservience of entire systems — factor into this?
—Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2025
People who climb upward by sacrificing their integrity to slavish subservience almost always fall on their faces eventually.
—Robert B. Reich, Hartford Courant, 21 Aug. 2025
There is no fog of subservience surrounding the concept.
—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Aug. 2019
See All Example Sentences for subservience
Recent Examples of Synonyms for subservience
Noun
-
Groypers are repelled by the obsequiousness of pro-Trump influencers who are always willing to contort themselves to support the President’s latest actions.—
Antonia Hitchens,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
-
The obsequiousness, the sneers, the boasting, the vacant generalities, and the hand-waving bespeak fear of departing from the Trumpian orthodoxy of the moment.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
But as the sexist and racist nature of the MAGA machine has gained mainstream acquiescence if not acceptance, the need to keep up the appearance of diversity is less and less.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Apr. 2026
-
Moss’ dour expression, over-relied upon for silent exposition throughout six seasons, conveys terror in the here and now, as well as for a future where fear is replaced by acquiescence.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
2 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
But for Coles, his indoctrination to law enforcement has been a different level of submissiveness.—
Dan Pompei,
New York Times,
2 Dec. 2025
-
In Killers of the Flower Moon, his Ernest Burkhart starts off as a mopey, weak-minded World War One veteran, eager to do anything for his godfather uncle (Robert De Niro), but there’s still a certain likability to his dim-bulb submissiveness.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
2 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The steadfast pushback against the administration might appear on the surface to be an encouraging trend, given the complaisance of the Republican majorities in Congress and weak-kneed capitulation to Trump by leaders of institutions such as universities and major corporations.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Feb. 2026
-
Yet electing to be private doesn’t amount to complaisance or complicity.—
Lesley M.M. Blume,
Town & Country,
6 Dec. 2022
Noun
-
In spite of a seismic crossing of the technological Rubicon, an abandonment of the centuries-old deference to the naked eye, a codifying and calcifying of the most atomic-level building block of the sport, baseball mostly just looked like baseball.—
Hannah Keyser,
CNN Money,
31 Mar. 2026
-
In Syria, Russia positioned itself between Iran and Israel, using its S-400 missile system to control the skies and leveraging that control to extract deference from both sides.—
Joseph Epstein,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Carlson-Wee introduces himself to Wood with the sweet docility of a young boy meeting his hero.—
Clara Molot,
Vanity Fair,
17 Mar. 2026
-
The same goes for docility, often characterized as a near neighbor of meekness.—
Timothy J. Pawl,
The Conversation,
23 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Subservience.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subservience. Accessed 9 Apr. 2026.
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