slavish
Someone who's slavish is either overly meek and obedient or copies someone else instead of thinking for themselves. If you write your story in the style of Ernest Hemingway, your English teacher may accuse you of slavish imitation.
In a dictatorship, rulers may expect citizens to be slavish, but in a democracy, no one should have to treat leaders in a slavish way. This meaning of slavish is the original 16th century one, from slave, "person who is the property of another person." The "servilely imitative, lacking originality or independence" meaning of slavish came later, around 1750.
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abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant“slavish devotion to her job ruled her life”“"a slavish yes-man to the party bosses"- S.H.Adams”synonyms: submissive, subservientservilesubmissive or fawning in attitude or behavior
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blindly imitative“a slavish copy of the original”synonyms:unoriginalnot original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual
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Vocabulary lists containing slavish
When Bassanio, a merchant, needs money to court Portia, his friend Antonio makes a risky deal with a moneylender. Read the full text here.
In this famous essay, Emerson argues against conformity and suggests that individuals must rely on their on their own ideas. Here are links to our lists for other works by Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature, The Young American
In the basement of their New York City apartment building, Gregor and his little sister discover a portal to an underground world populated by giant bats, insects, and rodents.