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servile

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Submissive, slavish, or characteristic of a servant; describes groveling attitudes or oppressive conditions in political verse.

Detailed Definition
In older literary English, servile often means not just “servant-like” but lacking freedom or dignity, as if bound to obey. In this poem, it sharpens the contrast between inner freedom and dependence in the phrase about “servile bands.”
Example
Example in poetry:
“This man is freed from servile bands” means bonds of slavery or degrading submission; Milton contrasts free moral choice with servile obedience; “Her servile praise made the king distrust her” shows submissive flattery; Contemporary-style example: “The poem rejects servile silence before injustice”
Additional Notes
The adjective in “servile bands” is a less common literary word that may need lookup because it means slavishly dependent, not just ordinary service.; Found in the poem, The Character of a Happy Life by Sir Henry Wotton
Also Known As
submissive obedient compliant slavish
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