Definition of Obsequious

1. Adjective. Attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery.

Exact synonyms: Bootlicking, Fawning, Sycophantic, Toadyish
Similar to: Insincere
Derivative terms: Obsequiousness, Sycophant

2. Adjective. Attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner. "Obsequious shop assistants"
Similar to: Servile
Derivative terms: Obsequiousness

Definition of Obsequious

1. a. Promptly obedient, or submissive, to the will of another; compliant; yielding to the desires of another; devoted.

Definition of Obsequious

1. Adjective. (archaic) Obedient, compliant with someone else's orders or wishes. ¹

2. Adjective. Excessively eager to please or to obey all instructions; fawning, subservient. ¹

3. Adjective. (obsolete) of or pertaining to obsequies, funereal ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Obsequious

1. [adj]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Obsequious

obscurities
obscurity
obscæne
obsecrate
obsecrated
obsecrates
obsecrating
obsecration
obsecrations
obsecratory
obsequent
obsequie
obsequience
obsequiences
obsequies
obsequious (current term)
obsequiously
obsequiousness
obsequity
obsequy
observ'd
observabilities
observability
observable
observables
observably
observance
observances
observancy
observant

Literary usage of Obsequious

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from by Richard Chenevix Trench (1865)
"Besides many other fishes in divers places, which are very obeisant and obsequious, when they be called by their names.— HOLLAND, Plutarch's Morals, p. 970. ..."

2. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1887)
"... devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to admit this foreign deity within the walls of their ••¡ties.38 But the obsequious priests, ..."

3. The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for by Edmund Burke, Benjamin Franklin Collection (Library of Congress), John Davis Batchelder Collection (Library of Congress) (1822)
"affection, less profound, would extend the embrace only to the knee, but a very obsequious courtier will sometimes take his monarch'« foot and place it ..."

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