[f. next: see -ENCY.]
1. = SUBSERVIENCE 1.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 277. All things being … by him given out to the world, in subserviency to the ends of his design.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. iv. § 5. This Institution of them in the Schools of the Prophets was of great subserviency.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., III. § 9. The Beauty of Dress depends on its subserviency to certain Ends and Uses.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, II. i. § 3. 10. When we contemplate … the manifest Adaptations and Subserviencies of all these Things to each other.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 479. The subserviency of our planet to the support of terrestrial as well as aquatic species.
1862. Hook, Lives Abps., II. 124. Persons, whom he intended to bring to a subserviency to his objects.
2. = SUBSERVIENCE 2. Now rare exc. as implied in 3.
1653. H. More, Conject. Cabbal. (1713), 15. It is reasonable the worser should be in subserviency to the better.
a. 1665. J. Goodwin, Being filled with the Sp. (1867), 147. That subserviency which … seems to be attributed to the Holy Ghost.
1723. Swift, Argts. agst. Bps., Wks. 1761, III. 263. Lords and squires—who … murmur at the payment of rent—as a subserviency they were not born to.
1896. Dk. Argyll, Philos. Belief, 8. The subserviency of structure to function, and the priority in time of structural growth.
3. = SUBSERVIENCE 3.
a. 1768. Secker, Serm. (1770), III. viii. 178. The obstructing of useful Measures by Opposition, forwarding bad ones by Subserviency.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 57, note. Any stricture on the score of subserviency in style or composition.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxix. That cringing subserviency which is one of the most baleful effects of slavery.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th Cent., I. i. 8. In no country have State trials been conducted with … a more scandalous subserviency to the Crown.
