submissive Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others or showing such inclination
    • submissive servants
    • a submissive reply
    • replacing troublemakers with more submissive people
  2. adjective satellite abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant
    subservient; slavish.
    • slavish devotion to her job ruled her life
    • a slavish yes-man to the party bosses"- S.H.Adams
    • she has become submissive and subservient

WordNet

Sub*mis"sive adjective
Definitions
  1. Inclined or ready to submit; acknowledging one's inferiority; yielding; obedient; humble.
    Not at his feet submissive in distress, Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking. Milton.
  2. Showing a readiness to submit; expressing submission; as, a submissive demeanor.
    With a submissive step I hasted down. Prior.
    Syn. -- Obedient; compliant; yielding; obsequious; subservient; humble; modest; passive. -- Sub*mis"sive*ly, adv. -- Sub*mis"sive*ness, n.

Webster 1913