submissive
/səbˈmɪsɪv
/adjective
Ready to conform to the authority or will of others; meekly obedient or passive: a submissive, almost sheeplike people...
- Dee believed the Angels to be obedient servants of God, submissive to the authority of Christ.
- He shows that slaves who seemed submissive and passive were cleverly using the language of their masters and subverting it to their own ends.
- Basically, I would be much more passive, submissive and altruistic.
Synonyms
compliant, yielding, malleable, acquiescent, accommodating, amenable, tractable, manageable, unassertive, non-resisting, passive, obedient, biddable, dutiful, duteous, docile, ductile, pliant, meek, timid, mild, patient, resigned, forbearing, subdued, humble, self-effacing, spiritless, deferential, obsequious, servile, slavish, self-abasing, spineless, grovelling, lamblike, supine
informal bootlicking, under someone's thumb
archaic resistless
rare longanimous
Derivatives
submissively
/ adverb ...- It means publicly reprimanding politicians who insist that ‘as Americans’ we should submissively yield to whatever the Supreme Court decides.
- Her Majesty sits squat on her throne, her head crowned, a sceptre in one hand, an orb in the other, and two lions stretch submissively at the imperial feet while she stares with bronze eyes at the distant horizons of Empire.
- When I arrived at the enclosures, he was inside, crouched submissively alongside a huge silver-backed male.
Origin
Late 16th century: from submission, on the pattern of pairs such as remission, remissive.