submissive
Syllables: sub·miss·ive/səbˈmɪsɪv/
submissive adjective: meekly obedient or passive; obsequious.
Adjective
submissive (comparative more submissive, superlative most submissive)
- Meekly obedient or passive; obsequious.
- The powerful managers for government were not sufficiently submissive to the pleasure of the possessors of immediate and personal favour, sometimes from a confidence in their own strength natural and acquired; sometimes from a fear of offending their friends, and weakening that lead in the country...1756, Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, G. Bell & sons, page 314
- If the human being who answers these tendencies assumes a submissive behavior, in essence a lowering of head and shoulders, wavering glance, absence of all preparations for attack, general weakening of muscle tonus, and hesitancy in movement, the movements of attempt at mastery become modified into...1913, Edward Lee Thorndike, Educational Psychology, Teachers college, Columbia university, page 92
- Desiring or engaging in sexual submission.
Noun
submissive (plural submissives)
- One who submits to a dominating partner in BDSM practices.
- Synonyms:
- sub
- Antonyms:
- dominant, dominatrix, dominator, dom
- One who submits.
- These "submissives" continued to go along as near as possible following the old routine of their lives and did no overt act to annoy any of the parties of whites that persisted in traveling through their country.1961, William Compton Brown, The Indian side of the story
submissive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
submissive in Hindi
- अधीनतापूर्ण
submissive in Tamil
- இணக்கமாகு, பணிந்துபோ, இணங்கிப் போகிற, கீழ்ப்படிகிற, பணிவான
submissive in Urdu
- عاجز, فروتن
submissive in Bengali
- বশ্যতাপূর্ণ, বশ্যতাপরায়ণ
More languagesFewer languages
- submissive in Telugu
- వశము vaśamu, వశంవదము vaśaṁvadamu
- submissive in Malayalam
- വിധേയത്വമുളള, വണങ്ങുന്ന, വിനയമുളള, കീഴ്വഴക്കമുള്ള
- submissive in Kannada
- ನಮ್ರ, ವಿಧೇಯ, ವಿನೀತ, ತಗ್ಗಿಬಗ್ಗಿ ನಡೆಯುವ
- submissive in Punjabi
- ਅਧੀਨ adhīn
- submissive in Sanskrit
- वश váśa
- submissive in Arabic
- خَاضِع ḵāḍiʕ
- submissive in Indonesian
- submisif
Examples of submissive in a sentence
- The upward angle made you look submissive which we know you are not!!!
- Back downstairs Abigail had settled down to watch Angela's scene with her submissive, Meggie.
- This “coming down” is different with each submissive and should be attended to accordingly.
Synonyms of submissive
Antonyms
Forms of submissive
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more submissive |
| superlative | most submissive |
| Noun | |
| plural | submissives |
Words formed from submissive
Words that rhyme with submissive
Questions about submissive
- What does submissive mean?
- Submissive means meekly obedient or passive; obsequious.
- What is submissive in Hindi?
- Submissive in Hindi is अधीनतापूर्ण. See Submissive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is submissive?
- Submissive can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce submissive?
- Submissive is pronounced /səbˈmɪsɪv/ (UK).
Words near submissive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: submissive (page history and authors); submissive (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); submissive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); submissive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); submissive (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); వశంవదము (Telugu) (page history and authors); submissive (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); submissive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਅਧੀਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); वश (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “submissive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/submissive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.