obsequious

Adjective
Synonyms: bootlickingfawningsycophantictoadyish

WordNet 3.0

Adjective (2)

  1. attempting to win favor from influential people by flatterySynonyms: bootlickingfawningsycophantictoadyish
  2. attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner“obsequious shop assistants”
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Obsequious \Ob*se"qui*ous\, a. [L. obsequiosus, fr. obsequium compliance, fr. obsequi, fr. obsequi: cf. F. obs['e]quieux, See Obsequent, and cf. Obsequy.]

1.Promptly obedient, or submissive, to the will of another; compliant; yielding to the desires of another; devoted. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

His servants weeping, Obsequious to his orders, bear him hither.— Addison.[1913 Webster]

2.Servilely or meanly attentive; compliant to excess; cringing; fawning; as, obsequious flatterer, parasite. [1913 Webster]

There lies ever in "obsequious" at the present the sense of an observance which is overdone, of an unmanly readiness to fall in with the will of another.— Trench.[1913 Webster]

3.[See Obsequy.] Of or pertaining to obsequies; funereal. [R.] "To do obsequious sorrow." --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Syn: Compliant; obedient; servile. See Yielding. [1913 Webster]

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