OBSEQUIOUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Obsequious

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/əbsˈikwiəs/ Listen

adjective

Obsequious adj.

Promptly obedient, or submissive, to the will of another; compliant; yielding to the desires of another; devoted. (Obs.) "His servants weeping, Obsequious to his orders, bear him hither."

Servilely or meanly attentive; compliant to excess; cringing; fawning; as, obsequious flatterer, parasite. "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."

Of or pertaining to obsequies; funereal. (R.) "To do obsequious sorrow."

Synonyms: Compliant; obedient; servile. See Yielding.

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Etymology of 'Obsequious'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Obsequious" Quotes from Famous Books

... He shook himself free from the obsequious native, who showed very clearly that he would have preferred to have kept on a watchful attendance, and began a languid, indifferent examination of the labyrinth-like passages and deserted halls. ...

— The Native Born - or, The Rajah's People • I. A. R. Wylie

... through all his Conversation. The military Part of his Life has furnished him with many Adventures, in the Relation of which he is very agreeable to the Company; for he is never over-bearing, though accustomed to command Men in the utmost Degree below him; nor ever too obsequious, from an Habit of ...

— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... passed; the carriage drew up before the inn door, the host delivered his most obsequious bow, fair Rosa bade farewell to her lover, the prince and Gulielmo entered the stately vehicle, and, with a loud crack of the coachman's whip, the ...

— The Sea-Witch - or, The African Quadroon A Story of the Slave Coast • Maturin Murray

... amazement at the audacity of anyone boldly intruding into a bath room—the only place left in Germany for the self-respecting Naked Cult. His eyes fell upon another uniformed emissary from the Police. This one was very obsequious and bowed and scraped his excuses for the ...

— Villa Elsa - A Story of German Family Life • Stuart Henry

... two large books with him in his gig, and a considerable roll of papers. As soon as the obsequious Mr. Pugnose saw him at the door, he assisted him to alight, ushered him into the "best room," and desired the constable to attend "the Squire." The crowd immediately entered, and the Constable opened the court in ...

— The Clockmaker • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

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