as in subordinate
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in fussing
to use flattery or the doing of favors in order to win approval especially from a superior
you can try kowtowing to the boss, but he'll see right through you
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for kowtowing
Adjective
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For many, the thrill of these stories, especially in the romance genre, is that heroines no longer derive power directly from their relationships with men and in turn they are not seen as subordinate to hero’s goals.—
Rebecca Scofield / Made by History,
TIME,
21 Jan. 2025 -
To salvage the 155th Mechanized Brigade, a unit that Ukraine, France and Poland spent months and millions of dollars training and equipping, Ukrainian leaders have begun assigning its fresh but inexperienced subordinate units to the weary but experienced brigades in the Pokrovsk sector.—
David Axe,
Forbes,
3 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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His co-stars, like Will Ferrell’s savage Mugatu, Owen Wilson’s stoner hottie Hansel, and Nathan Lee Graham’s servile Todd — all so precise and well-defined in the original’s ravelike milieu — are doomed to retrace their old steps here.—
Sean Malin,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2024
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These officials could, in turn, redistribute some of their private goods among their own servile lieutenants, but the monarch retained ultimate power to grant or revoke their privileged status.—
Serhiy Kudelia,
Foreign Affairs,
27 Feb. 2014
Adjective
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Rhodes scholars have long had a reputation for being obsequious careerists, transforming themselves into whatever the elite consensus of the day deems worthy.—
airmail.news,
airmail.news,
1 June 2024
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There were cover stories on him and obsequious profiles.—
Cory Franklin,
Twin Cities,
2 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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But Optimus, who in the video seems more than happy to be at his mistress’s beck and call, appears less subservient in a series of pictures in which Kardashian, wearing spike heels and lingerie, poses beside him and a gold Tesla Cybercab.—
Naomi Fry,
The New Yorker,
21 Dec. 2024
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As an angry teenager who develops a passionate hatred for everything about her life, particularly her stooped, seemingly subservient mother, Inseon runs away to Seoul, falls through a snowbank into a pit, and nearly dies.—
Judith Shulevitz,
The Atlantic,
14 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Yet in Kim’s slavish dedication to the Jeju haenyeo’s testimony, many questions that arise in this setting are left unexplored.—
Geoffrey Bunting,
Rolling Stone,
11 Oct. 2024
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By the beginning of 1956, some American communists openly blamed the poor state of their party on Moscow’s ideological inflexibility—and their own leaders’ slavish obedience to Soviet officials.—
Jeremy Friedman,
Foreign Affairs,
17 July 2024
Adjective
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His oxygen tank sat at his knees like an obedient mastiff.—
Brandon Taylor,
The Atlantic,
4 Jan. 2025
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Anyone who meets the gentle, obedient boy would never call him that.—
Bebe Hodges,
USA TODAY,
15 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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The issue then was DeSantis’ marginalizing of Black voting strength in North Florida, forcing a submissive Legislature to swallow his map of congressional districts — an issue that’s the Legislature’s prerogative.—
Steve Bousquet,
Sun Sentinel,
1 Feb. 2025
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What’s more, the deal would very likely provoke a political and military crisis in Ukraine, which Russia could exploit to finally achieve its objective of turning the country into a submissive dominion.—
Elie Tenenbaum,
Foreign Affairs,
3 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Israeli medical specialists have concluded some hostages released in an earlier truce were drugged to keep them docile.—
Kim Hjelmgaard,
USA TODAY,
25 Jan. 2025
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Mark shares that this is his first time encountering an elf owl and explains how these tiny, docile birds lead secluded lives, often nesting in saguaro cactus cavities made by woodpeckers.—
Tiffany Acosta,
The Arizona Republic,
16 Dec. 2024
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Thesaurus Entries Near kowtowing
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“Kowtowing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/kowtowing. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.
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