subservient

[Lat, subserviens, pr. par. of subservio=to subserve (q. v.).] 1. Useful as an instrument to effect or promote a purpose or end. 'Made subservient to the grand design." Cowper: Conversation, 897. 2. Acting as a subordinate instrument; fitted or disposed to serve in an inferior capacity; subordi nate. "Wherefore the many gods of the intelligent pagans were derived from one God, and but (as Plutarch somewhere calls them) the subservient powers, or ministers of the one supreme unmade Deity."-Cudworth: Intell. Sys tem , p. 548. sub-ser-vi-ent-ly, adv . [Eng. subservient; -ly.] In a subservient manner. sub-sěs-sile, adj . [Pref. sub- , and Eng. se ile (q.v.).]. Bot.: Nearly se ile; all but destitute of a stalk. sub-sex-tu-ple, adj . [Pref. sub- , and Eng. sex tuple (q. v.).] Containing one part in six. "One of these under pulleys abates half of that heavine the weight hath, and causes the power to be in a sub. duple proportion unto it, two of them a sub quadruple proportion, three a sub sextuple ." -Wilkins : Mathematical Magic .