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ubordinate; hence, servile, truckling. Scarce ever reading anything which he did not make subservient in one kind or other. Bp. Fell. These ranks of creatures are subservient one to another. Ray. Their temporal ambition was wholly subservient to their proselytizing spirit. Burke.

In a subservient manner.

Subservient or subordinate, like a handmaid; auxiliary. The Convocation of York seems to have been always considered as inferior, and even ancillary, to the greater province. Hallam.

cope in every page; Religion, Country, genius of his Age. Pope. A man of . . . thoroughly subservient character. Motley.

estial being, inferior to the supreme God, but superior to man. God . . . employing these subservient divinities. Cheyne.

Subservient; obsequious. Duteous to the vices of thy mistress. Shak. -- Du"te*ous*ly, adv. -- Du"te*ous*ness, n.

To give in vassalage; to make subservient. [Obs.] [The king] enfeoffed himself to popularity. Shak.

Pertaining to, or subservient to, the sense of taste; as, the gustatory nerve which supplies the front of the tongue.

A dependent and subservient hanger-on of a political patron. [Political Cant, U. S.] The army of hungry heelers who do their bidding. The Century.

Hence: Esp., to guide by careful or delicate treatment; to wield with address; to make subservient by artful conduct; to bring around cunningly to one's plans. It was so much his interest to manage his Protestant subjects. Addison . It was not her humor to manage those over whom she had gained an ascendant. Bp. Hurd.…

Such as can be managed or used; suffering control; governable; tractable; subservient; as, a manageable horse.

Smoothly subservient; supple; compliant; plausible; insinuating. "This oily rascal." Shak. His oily compliance in all alterations. Fuller. Oily grain (Bot.), the sesame. -- Oily palm, the oil palm.

To make subservient. Subjected to his service angel wings. Milton.

To be subservient; to be useful. [Obs.] "Our passions . . . subminister to the best and worst purposes." L'EStrange.

Subordinate; subservient. [Obs.] Bacon.

To serve in subordination or instrumentally; to be subservient to; to help forward; to promote. It is a great credit to know the ways of captivating Nature, and making her subserve our purposes, than to have learned all the intrigues of policy. Glanvill.

The quality or state of being subservient; instrumental fitness or use; hence, willingness to serve another's purposes; in a derogatory sense, servility. The body wherein appears much fitness, use, and subserviency to infinite functions. Bentley. There is a regular subordination and subserviency among all the parts to…

A series of events in a play, proceeding collaterally with the main story, and subservient to it. Dryden.

Becoming an understrapper; subservient. [R.] Sterne.