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4 definitions found

From: DICT.TW English-Chinese Dictionary 英漢字典

 time·serv·ing /-vɪŋ/
 無操守,趨炎附勢

From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 Time·serv·ing, a. Obsequiously complying with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power.

From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 Time·serv·ing, n. An obsequious compliance with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power, which implies a surrender of one's independence, and sometimes of one's integrity.
 Syn: -- Temporizing.
 Usage: -- Timeserving, Temporizing. Both these words are applied to the conduct of one who adapts himself servilely to times and seasons. A timeserver is rather active, and a temporizer, passive. One whose policy is timeserving comes forward to act upon principles or opinions which may promote his advancement; one who is temporizing yields to the current of public sentiment or prejudice, and shrinks from a course of action which might injure him with others. The former is dishonest; the latter is weak; and both are contemptible.
    Trimming and timeserving, which are but two words for the same thing, . . . produce confusion.   --South.
 [I] pronounce thee . . . a hovering temporizer, that
 Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
 Inclining to them both.   --Shak.
 

From: WordNet (r) 2.0

 timeserving
      adj : taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any
            circumstance of possible benefit [syn: opportunist, opportunistic]