DEFERENTIAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does deferential mean? 

• DEFERENTIAL (adjective)
  The adjective DEFERENTIAL has 1 sense:

1. showing deference

  Familiarity information: DEFERENTIAL used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEFERENTIAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing deference

Synonyms:

deferent; deferential; regardful

Similar:

respectful (full of or exhibiting respect)

Derivation:

deference (a courteous expression (by word or deed) of esteem or regard)

deference (a disposition or tendency to yield to the will of others)

deference (courteous regard for people's feelings)

 Context examples 

In other people's presence I was, as formerly, deferential and quiet; any other line of conduct being uncalled for: it was only in the evening conferences I thus thwarted and afflicted him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was taciturn, soft-footed, very quiet in his manner, deferential, observant, always at hand when wanted, and never near when not wanted; but his great claim to consideration was his respectability.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And yet, so strong is habit, that, even in this extremity of emotion he assumed the deferential air of the high-class valet, and his sentences formed themselves in the sonorous fashion which had struck my attention upon that first day when the curricle of my uncle had stopped outside my father’s door.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He stirred his coffee round and round, he sipped it, he felt his chin softly with his grisly hand, he looked at the fire, he looked about the room, he gasped rather than smiled at me, he writhed and undulated about, in his deferential servility, he stirred and sipped again, but he left the renewal of the conversation to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was an enjoyment in accepting their simple kindness, and in repaying it by a consideration—a scrupulous regard to their feelings—to which they were not, perhaps, at all times accustomed, and which both charmed and benefited them; because, while it elevated them in their own eyes, it made them emulous to merit the deferential treatment they received.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)