LESSON 15: Is There Anything I Can Do
For You, Master?
Words Relating to Humility and Obedience
Compliant
• Mrs. Hayes prefers compliant
students, those who’ll do
everything they are told.
Adjective
Yielding,
submissive
• If you comply with the school
rules, you won’t get into trouble.
• Rose always complies with
Charles’s requests. She never says
no.
Fawning
Adjective
Gaining the
favor of another
by acting overly
kind or by using
flattery
• Mike advised me to stop fawning
over Dawn. “She’ll like you just as
well even if you don’t overindulge
her,” he said.
• Fawning is a form of manipulation
to win favors and get what you
want from others.
• As a fawning advisor to the Queen,
Peters told Her Majesty only what
she wanted to hear.
Obsequious
Adjective
Obeying or
performing a
service for
someone in an
overly attentive
manner
• Uriah practiced obsequiousness by
always telling others what a
privilege it was to be of service to
them.
• Some teachers prefer obsequious
students who fawn over them.
• Hoping for a big tip, the waiter
oozed obsequiousness, constantly
flattering me and calling me “sir.”
Servile
Adjective
Slave-like; very
humble and
submissive
• Roy has no right to treat you like a
servile lackey. You are not his slave
or valet.
• I hate having a servile job. It’s not
in my nature to bow to the whims
of others.
• Susan’s servility caused her to
cater to everyone’s desires but her
own.
Slavish
• Nicole worked slavishly in the
kitchen preparing dinner for thirty
guests.
Adjective
Slave-like; overly
humble;
involving very
hard work
• Harry followed Sally around,
slavishly attending to her every
need.
• Don had a slavish sidekick who did
the dirty work and devoted himself
to Don’s well-being.
Submissive
Adjective
Voluntarily
obeying
another; humble
• Lauren was attracted to submissive
friends, people who’d do
everything she asked of them.
• Over time, Lenny learned to be
less submissive. He actually stood
up to George once in a while.
• A recruit has to be submissive to
the sergeant or he’s going to get
into big trouble.
Subordinate
Adjective
Inferior; lower in
rank or status
• In a sentence, a subordinate
(dependent) clause depends on
the main (independent) clause for
its meeting.
• The general was accused of
insubordination after defying the
president’s order.
• For the sake of good discipline,
officers are forbidden to fraternize
with their subordinate unit
members.
Subservient
• In my grandmother’s day, a wife
was expected to be subservient to
her husband.
Adjective
Obedient;
obsequious
• Ricky asked subserviently, “May I
please be excused, sir, for just a
minute or two?”
• The apprentice played a
subservient role, trying to serve his
master in every way.
Sycophant
Noun
A self-server
who tries to gain
the favor of
others through
the use of
flattery or by
being over
attentive
• The king couldn’t distinguish the
honest advisers from the
sycophants who flattered him for
personal gain.
• Myron couldn’t get a promotion
on his merits, so he got one by
being a sycophant to his boss.
• Jason made a sycophantic speech
full of praise and flattery for the
chairman.
Toady
• Hoping to win the coach’s favor,
James became the coach’s toady.
Noun
A flatterer; a
sycophant
• If Mary were less of a toady, she
wouldn’t follow the teacher
around so much.
• Volunteering to wash the coach’s
car shows what a toady Karen has
become.