Word Direct Answers

timeserving

timeserving is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Obsequiously complying with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power.
  2. 2.An obsequious compliance with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power, which implies a surrender of one's independence, and sometimes of one's integrity. -- Timeserving, Temporizing. Both these words are applied to the conduct of one who adapts himself servilely to times and seasons. A timeserver is rather active, and a temporizer, passive. One whose policy is timeserving comes forward to act upon principles or opinions which may promote his advancement; one who is temporizing yields to the current of public sentiment or prejudice, and shrinks from a course of action which might injure him with others. The former is dishonest; the latter is weak; and both are contemptible. Trimming and timeserving, which are but two words for the same thing, . . . produce confusion. South. [I] pronounce thee . . . a hovering temporizer, that Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil, Inclining to them both. Shak.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Synonyms (Webster's 1913)

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is timeserving.

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