Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Submissive |
SubmissiveAdjective1. Inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others or showing such inclination; "submissive servants"; "a submissive reply"; "replacing troublemakers with more submissive people". 2. Willing to submit without resistance to authority; deferent. 3. 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; "she has become submissive and subservient". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "submissive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In BDSM, a bottom is a partner who takes the role of slave or victim, submitting to such acts as bondage, flogging, humiliation, or servitude from the top.A bottom is not necessarily submissive, and vice versa. At one end of the continuum is a submissive who enjoys taking orders from a dominant but does not receive any physical stimulation. At the other is a bottom who enjoys the intense physical and psychological stimulation but does not submit to the person delivering them.
It should be noted that the bottom is most often the partner who is giving instructions - the top typically tops when, and in the manner, requested by the bottom.
In order to explore BDSM sex, it is essential to be careful and choose a top who will be responsive to one's needs, feelings, and limits. (See safeword.) Failure to choose a trustworthy top can be very dangerous, and even a trustworthy but overzealous top can inflict severe pain or injury by failing to pay attention to the bottom.
Note that in BDSM sex, it is commonplace for two partners to switch roles from one encounter to the other, depending on mood and preference, a practice known as switching.
The term submissive or sub is more precise than "bottom", since the term "bottom" is also used in vanilla, especially gay, sex to refer to a receptive partner, or as an intransitive verb meaning to have receptive sex with. As above, it is very commonplace for partners to change roles from one encounter to the next or to have both insertive and receptive sex.
Bottoms sometimes identify themselves by wearing a set of keys on the right side of the belt or a color-coded handkerchief in their right rear pocket. This practice, called flagging, began in the gay male subculture but appears to be dying out.
In Japanese bondage and sexually-themed anime and manga (especially yaoi), a bottom is referred to as uke, a term from kabuki.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bottom (BDSM)."
Synonyms: SubmissiveSynonyms: slavish (adj), subservient (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: domineering (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Excitability | Meek, tolerant; patient, patient as Job; submissive; tame; content, resigned, chastened, subdued, lamblike; gentle as a lamb; suaviter in modo; mild as mothers milk; soft as peppermint; armed with patience, bearing with, clement, long-suffering. |
Facility | Manageable, wieldy; towardly, tractable; submissive; yielding, ductile; suant; pliant; (soft); glib, slippery; smooth; on friction wheels, on velvet. |
Humility | Adjective: humble, lowly, meek; modest; humble minded, sober-minded; unoffended; submissive; servile,. |
Obedience | Restrainable; resigned, passive; submissive; henpecked; pliant; (soft). |
Submission | Adjective: surrendering; Verb: submissive, resigned, crouching; downtrodden; down on one's marrow bones; on one's bended knee; unresistant, unresisting, nonresisting; pliant; (soft); undefended. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Submissive |
| English words defined with "submissive": break, break in ♦ compliant, cringing ♦ Demiss, Demissive, docility ♦ groveling, grovelling ♦ insubordinate ♦ meek, meekly, meekness ♦ Nonsubmissive ♦ obedience, obeisance, Obeisant, Obsequent ♦ Passive verb ♦ servile, slavish, spiritless, Submiss, Submissly, subordinate, subservient, Succumbent ♦ unservile, unsubmissive, uxorious ♦ wormlike, wormy. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "submissive": Afriet ♦ Cell Warrior ♦ King Stork. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | Harriet kissed her hand in silent and submissive gratitude |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Worker Rights | Bulgaria | Some trafficking victims from countries to the east are kept in Bulgaria for several weeks where they are subjected to psychological and physical abuse to make them more submissive before they are shipped to their destination points. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Submissive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.30% of the time. "Submissive" is used about 143 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.3% | 142 | 26,554 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.7% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 143 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "submissive": submissive behavior ♦ submissive servant. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "submissive": submissive-looking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "submissive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i nënshtruar (deferred, passive, reduced, servile, slavish, subject, subordinate, under, yielding), i bindur (biddable, certain, cocksure, committed, compliant, convinced, dedicated, docile, ductile, manageable, obedient, sequacious, well-behaved, wieldy). (various references) | |
Arabic | منقاد, متذلل (abject, obsequious, servile, subservient), مطيع (compliant, conformable, dutiful, manageable, obedient), مذعن (acquiescent, compliant, obedient, pliable, yielding), قانت (obedient), خاضع (dependent, liable, subject, subordinate, subsidiary, tributary). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | хрисим (amenable, pi, quiet, tractable), послушен (amenable, biddable, gentle, good, governable, obedient, tame, toward, tractable, unresisting), покорен (governable, humble, meek, obedient, unresisting). (various references) | |
Chinese | 服从 (Compliance, Compliant, Obedient, Obey, Obeyed, Obeying, Subjected, Subjecting). (various references) | |
Czech | poslušný (biddable, docile, dutiful, obedient), pokorný (humble, lowly, meek, tame), poddajný (amenable, compliant, docile, floppy, lithe, meek, pliable, pliant, supple, tame, yielding). (various references) | |
Farsi | فروتن (Courteous, Daft, Humble, Low, Lowly, Meek, Modest, Slight, Unassuming, Unpretentious, Venal), مطیع (Able, Docile, Limber, Obedient, Submission), حلیم (Meek), سربزیر (Limber, Low), خاضع , خاشع . (various references) | |
Finnish | nöyrä (humble, lowly, meek, obedient), alistuvainen, alamainen (humble, national, subject, subservient). (various references) | |
French | soumis (subject), docile. (various references) | |
German | gehorsam (obedience, obedient, obediently, obeisance, obeisant, obeisantly, subdued, submission). (various references) | |
Greek | πειθήνιοσ (amenable, docile), υπακούων, υποχωρών, υποτακτικόσ (subordinative, underling). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מקבל מרות (amenable, disciplined, docile, obedient, tractable), כ יע, כ וע (docile, obedient), צית י (docile, obedient, tractable), כ ע (docile, servile, tame). (various references) | |
Hungarian | engedelmes (biddable, conformable, deferential, dutiful, manageable, mindful, obedient, observant, subservient, tame), alázatos (humble, lowly, meek, obsequious, servile, subservient). (various references) | |
Italian | sottomesso (obedient, pliable, subdued, subject, subservient), remissivo (compliant), deferente (deferent, deferential, dutiful). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | " (docile, gentle, meek, obedient), " (docile, gentle, meek, obedient), " (docile, gentle, meek, obedient). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | じゅうじゅ" (docile, gentle, meek, obedient). (various references) | |
Korean | 복종하". (various references) | |
Manx | biallagh (docile, dutiful, obedient person, subject), beasagh (civil, civil as person, civilized, decorous, moral, quiet-mannered), arrymagh (respectful, reverend, solemn, venerable, worshipful). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ubmissivesay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | submisso (acquiescent, amenable, biddable, broken, conformable, duteous, humble, obedient, yielding), resignado (long-suffering, resigned, uncomplaining, unmurmuring), obediente (conformable, duteous, dutiful, governable, obedient, obsequious, observant, yielding), dócil (amenable, biddable, docile, facile, gentle, kind, manageable, meek, obedient, tractable, yielding). (various references) | |
Romanian | supus (acquiescent, compliant, duteous, dutiful, dutifully, humble, meek, meekly, obedient, obediential, passive, subject, submissively, supple, tame, yielding), slugarnic (cringing, grovelling, hat in hand, obsequious, servile, slavish, slimy, supple, toad-eating), umil (humble, humbly, low, lowly, mean, meek, modest, poor, small), plecat (bent, gone, humble). (various references) | |
Russian | покорный (acquiescent, humble, obedient, resigned, tame). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | smeran (humble, meek, sober minded), pokoran (amenable, conformable, humble, malleable, manageable, meek, obedient, servile, subservient, tractable). (various references) | |
Spanish | sumiso (amenable, compliant, meek, obedient). (various references) | |
Swedish | undergiven (abject, meek, passive, resigned). (various references) | |
Turkish | uysal (accommodating, acquiescent, agreeable, amenable, Clement, compliant, demiss, docile, ductile, easy, easygoing, facile, flexible, flexile, gentle, good humoured, good tempered, good-humored, lamblike, malleable, manageable, meek, milky, peaceful, pliant, soft, squeezable, supple, sweet-tempered, tame, toward, tractable, yielding), itaatkâr (compliant, conformable, obedient, observant), boyun eğen, alçakgönüllü (decent, demiss, frugal, hat in hand, humble, low, lowly, meek, meek-spirited, modest, pudent, simple, simple minded, simple-hearted, unassuming, unpresuming, unpretending, unpretentious). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | сумирний (fearless, non-aggressive), покірний (acquiesced, acquiescent, benign, duteous, lamblike, meek, obedient, obediential, obeisant, prideless, resigned, tame). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | ngoan ngoãn (conformable, docile, meek), dễ quy phục; dễ bảo, dễ phục tùng. (various references) | |
Welsh | ymostyngar. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | oboediens, oboediente, oboedientes, oboedientia, oboedientibus, subdita, subditae, subditas, subditi, subditis, subdito, subditos, subditum, subditus, subditusque, supplex. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "submissive": submissively, submissiveness, submissivenesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Submissive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: submersive, submisive, submissibe, submmisive. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "submissive" (pronounced submi"siv) |
| 5 | -m i" s i v | dismissive, missive, permissive. |
| 4 | -i" s i v | derisive. |
| 3 | -s i v | abrasive, abusive, adhesive, aggressive, allusive, apprehensive, aversive, coercive, cohesive, collusive, comprehensive, compulsive, conclusive, conducive, convulsive, corrosive, counteroffensive, decisive, defensive, depressive, discursive, dispersive, divisive, effusive, elusive, erosive, evasive, excessive, exclusive, expansive, expensive, explosive, expressive, extensive, hypertensive, illusive, impassive, impressive, impulsive, incisive, inclusive, inconclusive, indecisive, inexpensive, inoffensive, intrusive, invasive, massive, nonexclusive, nonresponsive, obsessive, obtrusive, offensive, oppressive, passive, pensive, persuasive, pervasive, possessive, progressive, recessive, reclusive, reflexive, regressive, repressive, repulsive, responsive, subversive, successive, unimpressive, unobtrusive, unresponsive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-i-i-m-s-s-s-u-v" | |
-2 letters: missives. | |
-3 letters: missies, missive, misuses, submiss. | |
-4 letters: busies, busses, ibises, imbues, isseis, issues, misses, missis, missus, misuse, musses, sebums, seisms. | |
-5 letters: bises, buses, imbue, issei, issue, ivies, mises, muses, sebum, seism, semis, sises, vibes, vises. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-i-i-m-s-s-s-u-v" | |
+2 letters: submissively. | |
+3 letters: subjectivisms. | |
+4 letters: submissiveness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
