| 释义 |
subservience|səbˈsɜːvɪəns|
[f. subservient: see -ence.]
1. The condition or quality of being serviceable, as a means to an end.
a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 1 All this accommodation..and mutual subservience of the things in Nature. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. 450 To order al means and affaires in subservience to his end and designe. 1793Burke Obs. Conduct Minority Wks. 1842 I. 614 It was in subservience to the general plan of disabling us from taking any steps against France. 1805Knox & Jebb Corr. I. 224 All events on this earth are regulated and directed, in subservience to the interests of that spiritual..kingdom of the Messiah. 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. iv. (1885) 119 We should trace the beneficent effects of pain and pleasure in their subservience to the purification of life.
†b. pl.
a1693Urquhart's Rabelais iii. l. 402 The uses and subserviences they were fit for. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xii, The plan is attended, through all its varieties and deflections, by subserviences to special occasions and utilities.
2. A condition of subordination or subjection to another. Now rare exc. as implied in 3.
1701G. Stanhope Pious Breathings v. xvii. (1720) 348 Grant that my sensual Affections may always continue in subservience to my reasonable mind. a1704T. Brown Praise of Wealth Wks. 1730 I. 86 A change of power to subservience is a proof of folly. 1836Thirlwall Greece xxi. (1839) III. 173 They had secured the subservience of the whole island. 1902W. Bright Age of Fathers (1903) I. xv. 288 The sermon..asserted the absolute ‘subservience’ of the Son to the Father.
3. Subservient behaviour, attitude, or conduct; servile subordination, submissiveness, obsequiousness.
1819Scott Ivanhoe xxiv, She could not indeed imitate his excess of subservience, because she was a stranger to the meanness of mind..by which it was dictated. 1849Grote Greece ii. xxxviii. V. 23 A young Persian monarch, corrupted by universal subservience around him. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life ix. iii. 314 Johnson..is grander in his neglect of fashion than Goldsmith in his ruinous subservience. 1902Mathieson Pol. & Relig. I. x. 323 His subservience to the King..was due in part to the extreme weakness of his position. |