servileness
Slavish submission tendency
Servileness is the quality of being excessively eager to please or obey, like a servant desperate to avoid punishment.
It suggests a cringing, undignified willingness to submit to authority: His servileness around the boss disgusted his coworkers.
The word carries more contempt than related terms like deference or compliance.
Servility is more common.
Servile eagerness to please
- sycophancyObsequious behavior toward authority
- fawningExcessive insincere flattery
- grovelingDemeaning self-abasement before another
- toadyingObsequious behavior seeking favor
bootlicking · kowtowing · cringing · meekness · docility · compliance · deference · submissiveness
Lower position in hierarchy
- inferiorityLower status or quality
- lowlinessState of modest rank
- humblenessState of being unpretentious
- vassalageSubordination to a lord
subjugation · oppression · hierarchy · caste · peasantry · feudalism · bondage · dependence
Lack of courage
- cowardiceAbsence of bravery
- timidityFearful lack of courage
- weaknessDeficiency in force
- passivityState of non-resistance
self-deprecation · insecurity · fearfulness · anxiety · people-pleasing · codependency · doormat · pushover
Joint intellectual work
- appeasementSatisfying demands to prevent conflict
- complicityShared criminal involvement
- conformityAdherence to norms
- authoritarianismConcentrated, unchecked governmental power
totalitarianism · dictatorship · tyranny · puppet · lackey · minion · henchman · loyalist
obsequiousness
Servile eagerness to please
- sycophancyObsequious behavior toward authority
- fawningExcessive insincere flattery
- grovelingDemeaning self-abasement before another
toadying · bootlicking · kowtowing · cringing · meekness · docility · compliance · deference · submissiveness · self-abasement
subordination
Lower position in hierarchy
- inferiorityLower status or quality
- lowlinessState of modest rank
- humblenessState of being unpretentious
vassalage · subjugation · oppression · hierarchy · caste · peasantry · feudalism · bondage · dependence · powerlessness
spinelessness
Lack of courage
passivity · self-deprecation · insecurity · fearfulness · anxiety · people-pleasing · codependency · doormat · pushover · acquiescence
collaboration
Joint intellectual work
- appeasementSatisfying demands to prevent conflict
- complicityShared criminal involvement
- conformityAdherence to norms
authoritarianism · totalitarianism · dictatorship · tyranny · puppet · lackey · minion · henchman · loyalist · apparatchik
servilenessdignity
Innate personal worth
pride · self-respect · self-esteem · nobility · honor
servilenessindependence
Freedom from external control
assertiveness · defiance · self-determination · autonomy · rebelliousness
servilenessdominance
Superior influence over others
masterfulness · authority · imperiousness · lordship · supremacy
service, servant, servitude, servile, subservient, servility, subservience, servilely, subserviently