docile — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Ready to accept instruction or direction; obedient; subservient.

   Synonyms

   amenablecompliantteachable

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   With that he dropped his head again, lamenting over and caressing her, and there was not a sound in all the house for a long, long time; they remaining clasped in one another’s arms, in the glorious sunshine that had crept in with Florence. He dressed himself for going out, with a docile submission to her entreaty; and walking with a feeble gait, and looking back, with a tremble, at the room in which he had been so long shut up, and where he had seen the picture in the glass, passed out with her into the hall.

   Harriet certainly was not clever, but she had a sweet, docile, grateful disposition; was totally free from conceit; and only desiring to be guided by any one she looked up to.

2. Yielding to control or supervision, direction, or management.

   Synonyms

   compliantmalleablemeeksubmissivetractablemanageable

   Antonyms

   perversedefiantrebelliouswilful

   Examples

   Such literature may well be anathema to those, who are too docile and petty for their own good.

Adjective

1. willing to be taught or led or supervised or directed

   Antonyms

   stubborn

   Examples

   the docile masses of an enslaved nation

2. ready and willing to be taught

   Synonyms

   teachable

   Examples

   docile pupils eager for instruction

   teachable youngsters

3. easily handled or managed

   Synonyms

   gentle

   Examples

   a gentle old horse, docile and obedient