Meaning

3 senses
  1. Excessively eager and attentive to please or to obey instructions; fawning, subservient, servile.

    unterwürfig, hörig, servil

    подобостра́стныйpodobostrástnyj, раболе́пныйrabolépnyj

    сервільнийservilʹnyj, раболіпнийrabolipnyj

    attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner

  2. (archaic)Obedient; compliant with someone else's orders or wishes.

    gehorsam, folgsam, unterwürfig

    послу́шныйposlúšnyj

  3. (obsolete)Of or pertaining to obsequies, funereal.

Examples

6 sentences
  1. Tom was obsequious towards his superiors and bullying towards his subordinates.

    deSeinen Vorgesetzten gegenüber gab Tom sich unterwürfig; seine Untergebenen schikanierte er.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · sundown · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. He is obsequious to the higher-ups and arrogant towards his underlings.

    deEr ist unterwürfig gegenüber den höheren Chargen und arrogant gegenüber seinen Untergebenen.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · al_ex_an_der · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. Tom, known to be obsequious, always tried to court favour with the boss.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Tangobango · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. Obsequious people make me feel uncomfortable.

    deIn Gegenwart von unterwürfigen Menschen wird es mir unwohl.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · patgfisher · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. The obsequious waiter is usually assigned the best table because he always curries favor with his manager and superiors.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · papabear · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

7 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
fawning, subservient:
Русский
By meaning 2
fawning, subservient:
obedient, compliant with someone else's orders:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
fawning, subservient:
obedient, compliant with someone else's orders:

Origin

From Middle English obsequyous, from Latin obsequiōsus (“complaisant, obsequious”), from o

From Middle English obsequyous, from Latin obsequiōsus (“complaisant, obsequious”), from obsequium (“compliance”), from obsequor (“comply with, yield to”), from ob (“in the direction of, towards”) + sequor (“follow”) (cf. sequel).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

more obsequious, most obsequious
Comparativemore obsequious Lesson
Superlativemost obsequious Lesson

regular

Synonyms

33 synonyms

Word family

8 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
obsequious — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto