Term Gallery logo

Meanings of obsequious in English

Attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery.

Related terms

Obsequious.

Related terms
Synonyms
Examples for "fawning"
Examples for "fawning"
1
No such special pleading or fawning re-enactment is necessary: that isn't fidelity.
The Guardian
2
He accused them of fawning on the rich and despising the poor.
A History of the Moravian Church
3
I prefer you as the bulldog, rather than as the fawning cur.
The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2)
4
His fawning manners and insinuating language varied according to the people addressed.
Derues / Celebrated Crimes
5
His manner vacillated between a kind of hateful hostility and craven fawning.
The gunslinger
1
His age may have been fifty; his air was mean and sycophantic.
The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and might...
2
As scheming and sycophantic as any royal family in Adarlan, she supposed.
Heir of Fire
3
The men who praised Cesare, the historian tells us, were sycophantic courtiers.
The Life of Cesare Borgia
4
She's amazing, considering the sickly, sycophantic atmosphere she's been brought up in.
The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig: A Novel
5
Twenty years ago this prize would have been sycophantic but maybe more justified.
Reuters
1
But the crawling, bootlicking carpenter, Jacob Engstrand, is changed into a respectable, guileless man with an income.
The Art of the Moving Picture
2
Dorotea could have her bootlicking faction in the Imperial Palace; Valya intended to rejoin Raquella, as a Reverend Mother.
Mentats of Dune
3
He looked at Tigerman, to be sure this display of bootlicking was noted, and added, The police are convinced Daniels killed himself.
Man in the Middle
Usage of obsequious in English
1
In a few minutes the obsequious clerk came blustering down the hall:
Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty years a slave, and Four Years in t...
2
To someone with a higher Party position, Li can be so obsequious.
Enigma of China
3
I assented and Agathemer came in, as smiling and obsequious as always.
Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of ...
4
He is wide-awake and obsequious enough, however, at backsheesh-time in the morning.
Around the World on a Bicycle - Volume II / From Teheran To Yoko...
5
The Emîr laughed again, which was the signal for an obsequious roar.
The Valley of the Kings
6
When I saw him, he held a candle in this obsequious posture.
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IV (...
7
She received his obsequious homage with a slight inclination of the head.
Joseph II. and His Court: An Historical Novel
8
Rich was as obsequious as the Augusta caddie shack had to offer.
The Irish Times
9
Its numerous retinue of deft and obsequious maid-servants added to this impression.
The Unwilling Vestal
10
You shall never boast of me on your list of obsequious admirers.
Autumn Leaves: Original Pieces in Prose and Verse
11
The King, still obsequious to Spain, looked on him coldly and askance.
France and England in North America, Part I: Pioneers of France ...
12
The owner sighed and shrugged, uttering obsequious phrases of apology and assurance.
The bourne identity
13
The orderly stood in it, staring at Sutton's back, obsequious, yet impatient.
The Romantic
14
And I am not obsequious, to the Crown or to Irish nationalists.
The Irish Times
15
Men flocked past him with obsequious greetings, but he merely grunted replies.
The Ramrodders: A Novel
16
What was the language of the Senate, lately so obsequious and servile?
The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise
About this term
More collocations
Obsequious through the time
Obsequious across language varieties
United Kingdom
Common
United States of America
Less common