obedient

adjective

Lucinda had always been very obedient:

compliant, acquiescent, tractable, amenable;

dutiful, good, law-abiding, deferential, respectful, duteous, under control, well trained, well disciplined, disciplined, observant, manageable, governable, conformable;

docile, biddable, submissive, tame, meek, passive, unresisting, malleable, pliable, pliant, yielding, subservient, obsequious, servile.

▷antonyms disobedient, rebellious, unruly.

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obedient, biddable, docile, compliant, dutiful

■ Children and animals may be expected to be obedient, but nowadays the word is seldom used to describe adults without an implication of subservience (“I was waiting for you to tell me. The obedient wife,” she said) except when it is used of obedience to rules, the law, or a faith (she seeks to be obedient to the Lord).

■ The critical note is still stronger in biddable: a biddable person (typically a woman or girl) is excessively meek and ready to obey any instruction, without questioning either its wisdom or the authority of the person giving it (she'd been so meek, so biddable to this man). It is also used of animals (the golden retriever is both biddable and intelligent).

■ Docile, being used more commonly of animals, has similar implications, but in addition to unquestioning obedience it suggests a general reluctance to complain or rebel, even where such behavior would be justified (employers depended on the regime for a cheap and docile workforce).

■ Compliant means ‘disposed to agree with others or obey rules’ and typically has a disparaging tone, criticising the compliant person for not having the willpower to stand up for themselves and show some independence by expressing their own views (compliant politicians loyally following party policy).

■ Even dutiful, though applied to a large extent to family members (daughter, son, wife, parent, mother, father), may suggest a dull but worthy individual or the perfunctory fulfillment of an obligation (a dutiful postcard to his mother).