Subservient, a.
Etymology: [L. subserviens, -entis, p.pr. See Subserve.]
Fitted or disposed to subserve; useful in an inferior capacity; serving to promote some end; subordinate; hence, servile, truckling. Scarce ever reading anything which he did not make subservient in one kind or other. Bp. Fell. These ranks of creatures are subservient one to another. Ray. Their temporal ambition was wholly subservient to their proselytizing spirit. Burke.
Shades of meaning
Fernald lists subservient only as an antonym, under rebellious.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.
Synonyms
none given