Definition: obsequious

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

obsequious
     adj 1: attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery
            [syn: bootlicking, fawning, sycophantic, toadyish]
     2: attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner; "obsequious
        shop assistants"

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Obsequious \Ob*se"qui*ous\, a. [L. obsequiosus, fr. obsequium
   compliance, fr. obsequi, fr. obsequi: cf. F. obs['e]quieux,
   See Obsequent, and cf. Obsequy.]
   1. Promptly obedient, or submissive, to the will of another;
      compliant; yielding to the desires of another; devoted.
      [Obs.]

            His servants weeping, Obsequious to his orders, bear
            him hither.                           --Addison.

   2. Servilely or meanly attentive; compliant to excess;
      cringing; fawning; as, obsequious flatterer, parasite.

            There lies ever in ``obsequious'' at the present the
            sense of an observance which is overdone, of an
            unmanly readiness to fall in with the will of
            another.                              --Trench.

   3. [See Obsequy.] Of or pertaining to obsequies; funereal.
      [R.] ``To do obsequious sorrow.'' --Shak.

   Syn: Compliant; obedient; servile. See Yielding.