timeserving Meaning, Definition & Usage
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adjective satellite taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit
opportunist; opportunistic.
WordNet
Time"serv`ing adjective
Definitions
Obsequiously complying with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power.
Time"serv`ing noun
Definitions
An obsequious compliance with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power, which implies a surrender of one's independence, and sometimes of one's integrity. Syn. -- Temporizing. -- Timeserving ,Temporizing . Both these words are applied to the conduct of one who adapts himself servilely to times and seasons. A timeserver is rather active, and a temporizer, passive. One whose policy is timeserving comes forward to act upon principles or opinions which may promote his advancement; one who is temporizing yields to the current of public sentiment or prejudice, and shrinks from a course of action which might injure him with others. The former is dishonest; the latter is weak; and both are contemptible.Trimming and timeserving, which are but two words for the same thing, . . . produce confusion. South.
[I] pronounce thee . . . a hovering temporizer, that Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil, Inclining to them both. Shak.
