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SUBMISSIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others or showing such inclination
Example:
replacing troublemakers with more submissive people
Classified under:
Similar:
abject (showing humiliation or submissiveness)
bowed; bowing (showing an excessively deferential manner)
meek; spiritless (evidencing little spirit or courage; overly submissive or compliant)
cringing; groveling; grovelling; wormlike; wormy (totally submissive)
dominated; henpecked (harassed by persistent nagging)
Also:
unassertive (inclined to timidity or lack of self-confidence)
obedient (dutifully complying with the commands or instructions of those in authority)
humble (marked by meekness or modesty; not arrogant or prideful)
subordinate (subject or submissive to authority or the control of another)
Antonym:
domineering (tending to domineer)
Derivation:
submissiveness (the trait of being willing to yield to the will of another person or a superior force etc.)
submit (yield to another's wish or opinion)
submit (yield to the control of another)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant
Example:
she has become submissive and subservient
Synonyms:
slavish; submissive; subservient
Classified under:
Similar:
servile (submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior)
Derivation:
submissiveness (the trait of being willing to yield to the will of another person or a superior force etc.)
submit (yield to the control of another)
Context examples:
I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand, and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness; and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience (perhaps against the strict rules of decency) by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I wanted food.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Unwelcome as it was, Mr. Woodhouse could only give a submissive sigh; and as Emma saw his spirits affected by the idea of his daughter's attachment to her husband, she immediately led to such a branch of the subject as must raise them.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Lastly, I saw Mr. Mason was submissive to Mr. Rochester; that the impetuous will of the latter held complete sway over the inertness of the former: the few words which had passed between them assured me of this.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
God won't be so cruel as to take you from me, cried poor Jo rebelliously, for her spirit was far less piously submissive than Beth's.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I beg your pardon, miss, he said, awakening from his abstraction, but, however submissive to you, I have my position, though a servant.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It must have possessed some magic, for the submissive spirit of its gentle owner seemed to enter into Jo, and when Laurie came running down with a glass of wine, she took it with a smile, and said bravely, I drink— Health to my Beth!
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
And he takes, said my mother, with the tears which were engendered in her affectionate nature, stealing down her face, he takes great pains with me; and I ought to be very thankful to him, and very submissive to him even in my thoughts; and when I am not, Peggotty, I worry and condemn myself, and feel doubtful of my own heart, and don't know what to do.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Jo dropped a kiss on the top of Mr. Laurence's bald head, and ran up to slip the apology under Laurie's door, advising him through the keyhole to be submissive, decorous, and a few other agreeable impossibilities.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
