obsequious

Definition

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

Etymology

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).

Example Sentences

• "Personally I felt shy and uncomfortable at this obsequious adoration, and I read the same feeling in the faces of Lord John and Summerlee, but Challenger expanded like a flower in the sun."
• "Translation falls especially short of this conceit which carries the whole flamboyance of the Spanish language. It was intended as an obsequious flattery of the Condesa, and was untrue."
• "[S]he complained pettishly of the heat and the flies and at length of the walk, and reduced Robert to the antics of an obsequious dog."