Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or characteristic of a slave or slavery; servile: Her slavish devotion to her job ruled her life.
- adj. Showing no originality; blindly imitative: a slavish copy of the original.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of. pertaining to, characteristic of, or befitting slaves; servile; base: as, slavish fears; a slavish dependence on the great.
- Lacking originality or due independence.
- Like that of a slave; servile; consisting of drudgery and laborious toil: as, slavish service.
- Enslaved; oppressed.
- Synonyms Cringing, obsequious, fawning, groveling.—3. Drudging, menial.
Wiktionary
- adj. in the manner of a slave; abject.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to slaves; such as becomes or befits a slave; servile; excessively laborious
WordNet 3.0
- adj. blindly imitative
- adj. abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant
Examples
“You don't trouble about my being what you call slavish when it's you that profits by it!”
Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Three Plays By Brieux
“This is what we call slavish devotion to The One. ...”
“What I AM saying is that it is foolish to maintain slavish adherence to “principle” if that adherence results in bad ends.”
“Well the word slavish, you might know, means submissive.”
“At present, so slavish is the attitude of nearly the whole British press that ordinary people have very little idea of what is happening, and may well be committed to policies which they will repudiate in five years time.”
“It was scarcely surprising that the cholera should spread rapidly, for fear is its powerful auxiliary, and the Cruces people bowed down before the plague in slavish despair.”
“But I should add that I’m a big believer in teaching children and anyone who’s just learning to write in English slavish adherence to grammatical rules.”
“One must either be white or turn on one’s own race in slavish support of whites.”
“I do not dare to call slavish that which is royal.”
“Dutch justice minister Piet Hein Donner is what one can call a slavish democrat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘slavish’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Something Vishy
peevish, ravish, vitiate, vishnu, lavish, dovish, dervish, slavish, knavish, vicious
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