Adjacent Words

Submissive definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SUBMISS'IVE, a. Yielding to the will or power of another; obedient.
1. Humble; acknowledging one's inferiority; testifying one's submission.
Her at his feet submissive in distress,
He thus with peaceful words uprais'd.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others or showing such inclination; "submissive servants"; "a submissive reply"; "replacing troublemakers with more submissive people" [ant: domineering]
2: abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant; "slavish devotion to her job ruled her life"; "a slavish yes- man to the party bosses"- S.H.Adams; "she has become submissive and subservient" [syn: slavish, subservient, submissive]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1575 submitting to others <submissive employees> • submissively adverb • submissiveness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 humble; obedient. 2 yielding to power or authority; willing to submit. Derivatives: submissively adv. submissiveness n. Etymology: SUBMISSION after remissive etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Submissive Sub*mis"sive, a. 1. Inclined or ready to submit; acknowledging one's inferiority; yielding; obedient; humble. Not at his feet submissive in distress, Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking. --Milton. 2. Showing a readiness to submit; expressing submission; as, a submissive demeanor. With a submissive step I hasted down. --Prior. Syn: Obedient; compliant; yielding; obsequious; subservient; humble; modest; passive. -- Sub*mis"sive*ly, adv. -- Sub*mis"sive*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you are submissive, you obey someone without arguing. Most doctors want their patients to be submissive. ADJ • submissively The troops submissively laid down their weapons. ADV

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Yielding, tractable, pliant, docile, compliant, amenable. 2. Obedient, resigned, uncomplaining, unrepining, patient, long-suffering, passive. 3. Humble, meek, lowly.

Moby Thesaurus

abject, abused, accepting, accommodating, accordant, acquiescent, acquiescing, adaptable, adapting, adaptive, adjustable, adjusting, affirmative, agreeable, agreed, agreeing, amenable, approving, ass-kissing, assentatious, assenting, base, bendable, bending, biddable, bow, bring, browbeaten, brown-nosing, capitulate, cave, complaisant, compliable, compliant, complying, conceding, concessive, conformable, conforming, consentient, consenting, content, defer, deferential, deliver, devoted, docile, domestic, domesticated, downtrod, downtrodden, ductile, duteous, dutiful, eager, elastic, endorsing, extensible, extensile, fabricable, facile, faithful, favorable, fictile, flexible, flexile, flexuous, formable, formative, giving, ground down, hand in, henpecked, humble, humble-minded, humble-spirited, humblehearted, impressible, impressionable, in leading strings, ingratiating, knuckle, knuckle under, law-abiding, like putty, limber, lissome, lithe, lithesome, loyal, malleable, manageable, mean, meek, meek-minded, meek-spirited, meekhearted, menial, misused, moldable, nondissenting, nonresistant, nonresisting, nonresistive, nothing loath, obedient, obeisant, obeying, obsequious, offer, on bended knee, oppressed, ordered around, other-directed, overborne, passive, permissive, plastic, pliable, pliant, poor in spirit, present, proffer, prompt, prostrate, ratifying, ready, receptive, reconciled, refer, regimented, resigned, responsive, sanctioning, send, sensitive, sequacious, servile, shapable, slavish, springy, subdued, submit, subservient, succumb, supine, supple, surrender, susceptible, sycophantic, tender, timid, toadying, tractable, tractile, trampled, truckling, tyrannized, unassertive, uncomplaining, ungrudging, unloath, unmanned, unrefusing, unreluctant, unresistant, unresisting, whippy, willing, willowy, yielding