Category:Servile

Serv"ile, a. Etym: [l. servile, fr. servus a servant or slave: cf. F. Servile. See serve.]

1. Of or pertaining to a servant or slave; befitting a servant or a Slave; proceeding from dependence; hence, meanly submissive; slavish; Mean; cringing; fawning; as, servile flattery; servile fear; servile Obedience. She must bend the servile knee. Thomson. Fearing dying pays death servile breath. Shak.

2. Held in subjection; dependent; enslaved. Even fortune rules no more, o servile land! Pope.

3. (gram.) (a) not belonging to the original root; as, a servile letter. (b) not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceeding vowel, As e in tune.

Servile Serv"ile, n. (gram.)

Defn: an element which forms no part of the original root; -- opposed To radical.