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Definition of Servile
1. Adjective. Submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior. "Servile tasks such as floor scrubbing and barn work"
Derivative terms: Servility
Antonyms: Unservile
2. Adjective. Relating to or involving slaves or appropriate for slaves or servants. "Servile work"
Definition of Servile
1. a. 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. n. An element which forms no part of the original root; -- opposed to radical.
Definition of Servile
1. Adjective. of or pertaining to a slave ¹
2. Adjective. submissive or slavish ¹
3. Noun. (grammar) An element which forms no part of the original root. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Servile
1. slavishly submissive [adj]
Medical Definition of Servile
1. 1. 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. "She must bend the servile knee." (Thomson) "Fearing dying pays death servile breath." (Shak) 2. Held in subjection; dependent; enslaved. "Even fortune rules no more, O servile land!" (Pope) 3. Not belonging to the original root; as, a servile letter. Not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceeding vowel, as e in tune. Origin: L. Servile, fr. Servus a servant or slave: cf. F. Servile. See Serve. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Servile
Literary usage of Servile
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Principles of Labor Legislation by John Rogers Commons, John Bertram Andrews (1920)
"But status often merges into contract, or the fiction of a contract, and we may
therefore speak of a servility stage, or a stage of servile contracts, ..."
2. Principles of Labor Legislation by John Rogers Commons, John Bertram Andrews (1920)
"But status often merges into contract, or the fiction of a contract, and we may
therefore speak of a servility stage, or a stage of servile contracts, ..."
3. The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I by Frederick Pollock, Frederic William Maitland (1899)
"Thus we should get the rule, which had been approved by the church, namely, that,
whenever free and servile blood are mixed, the servile ..."
4. The Political History of England by William Hunt, Reginald Lane Poole (1906)
"... but it is provided that all men in servile condition shall have the four
Wednesdays in the Ember-weeks, on which days they are graciously permitted to ..."
5. The Political History of England by William Hunt, Reginald Lane Poole (1906)
"On the condition of the servile class, ... but it is provided that all men in
servile condition shall have the four Wednesdays in the Ember-weeks, ..."
6. The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest by Thomas Hodgkin (1906)
"On the condition of the servile class, ... but it is provided that all men in
servile condition shall have the four Wednesdays in the Ember-weeks, ..."
7. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1843)
"Of the five martyrs so much celebrated in the acts of Felicita« and Perpetua,
two were (if a servile, and two others of a very mean, condition. ..."
8. Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third by Alfred John Horwood, Luke Owen Pike (1891)
"... which the superior lord, in avowing on the tenant of a as servile manor, ...
HI. servile condition, as well as servile tenure, from the payment of ..."
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