obsequiousness
nounEtymology From Middle English obsequyousnesse, equivalent to obsequious + -ness.
1
Usually The quality of being obsequious; servile compliance.
- The crusty portier and the crusty clerks gave us the surly reception which their kind deal out in prosperous times, but by mollifying them with an extra display of obsequiousness and servility we finally got them to show us to the room which our boy had engaged for us.1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure.2018 May 9, George F. Will, “Trump is no longer the worst person in government”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2018:
- Derived terms
- inobsequiousness