Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or characteristic of a slave or slavery; servile.
- adjective Showing no originality; blindly imitative.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of. pertaining to, characteristic of, or befitting slaves; servile; base: as, slavish fears; a slavish dependence on the great.
- Lacking originality or due independence.
- Like that of a slave; servile; consisting of drudgery and laborious toil: as, slavish service.
- Enslaved; oppressed.
- Synonyms Cringing, obsequious, fawning, groveling.—3. Drudging, menial.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to slaves; such as becomes or befits a slave; servile; excessively laborious
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective in the manner of a slave; abject
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective blindly imitative
- adjective abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word slavish.
Examples
-
You don't trouble about my being what you call slavish when it's you that profits by it!
Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Three Plays By Brieux Eug��ne Brieux 1895
-
This is what we call slavish devotion to The One. ...
INSTAPUTZ 2009
-
What I AM saying is that it is foolish to maintain slavish adherence to “principle” if that adherence results in bad ends.
-
Well the word slavish, you might know, means submissive.
-
At present, so slavish is the attitude of nearly the whole British press that ordinary people have very little idea of what is happening, and may well be committed to policies which they will repudiate in five years time.
As I Please 1944
-
It was scarcely surprising that the cholera should spread rapidly, for fear is its powerful auxiliary, and the Cruces people bowed down before the plague in slavish despair.
-
But I should add that I’m a big believer in teaching children and anyone who’s just learning to write in English slavish adherence to grammatical rules.
-
One must either be white or turn on one’s own race in slavish support of whites.
-
I do not dare to call slavish that which is royal.
-
Dutch justice minister Piet Hein Donner is what one can call a slavish democrat.
The Rule of Reason 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.