submissiveness
Tendency to comply
Submissiveness is the quality of yielding readily to authority or the will of others.
It suggests deference, obedience, or a willingness to be controlled: Her submissiveness made her an easy target for manipulation.
The trait can be valued in contexts emphasizing humility or cooperation, or criticized as weakness.
In BDSM, submissiveness describes the role of the partner who cedes control.
Gentle, unassertive disposition
- docilityReadiness to submit
- timidityFearful lack of courage
- gentlenessSoft, kind demeanor
- humilityFreedom from arrogance
mildness · shyness · diffidence · demureness · quietness · bashfulness · reserve · reticence
Compliance with authority
- deferenceYielding to another's judgment
- complianceAdhering to requirements
- acquiescenceUnresisting acceptance
- servilityExcessive willingness to please
subservience · subordination · dutifulness · conformity · biddability · tractability · amenability · manageability
Bending under pressure
- surrenderCease resistance, yield
- capitulationComplete yielding to demands
- concessionYielding a point
- resignationVoluntary relinquishment of position
nonresistance · consent · assent · accommodation · appeasement · kowtowing · bootlicking · fawning
meekness
Gentle, unassertive disposition
- docilityReadiness to submit
- timidityFearful lack of courage
- gentlenessSoft, kind demeanor
humility · mildness · shyness · diffidence · demureness · quietness · bashfulness · reserve · reticence · softness
obedience
Compliance with authority
- deferenceYielding to another's judgment
- complianceAdhering to requirements
- acquiescenceUnresisting acceptance
servility · subservience · subordination · dutifulness · conformity · biddability · tractability · amenability · manageability · pliability
yielding
Bending under pressure
- surrenderCease resistance, yield
- capitulationComplete yielding to demands
- concessionYielding a point
resignation · nonresistance · consent · assent · accommodation · appeasement · kowtowing · bootlicking · fawning · sycophancy
- dog traitsloyal, friendly, loyalty, devoted, playful
- humilityhumbleness, humble, meekness, modesty, modest
- personality traitsextraversion, agreeableness, introvert, neuroticism, temperament
- traitshonesty, ambitious, brave, calm, kindness
- passivitypassiveness, inaction, inactivity, acquiescence, nonresistance
- people-pleasing behaviorsflattery, accommodating, self-sacrifice, conflict avoidance, peacekeeping
submissivenessdefiance
Open resistance to authority
rebelliousness · disobedience · recalcitrance · insubordination · intractability
submissivenessdominance
Superior influence over others
domination · authority · mastery · domineeringness · authoritarianism
submissivenessassertiveness
Confident self-expression quality
domineeringness · arrogance · aggressiveness · boldness · self-assertion
submit, submission, submissive, submitted, submitting, submissions, submissively, unsubmissive, submittable