Deferential

English used to have two forms for "you," one intimate and one "polite." No more. But where status matters, and a deferential address is called for, the third person is pressed into service; and the headwaiter asks, "Does the gentleman want a table?"

Vair, who was to be revered as a Sufi saint, was noticed in a bazaar because of his deferential bearing by a stranger, who, taking him for a slave, approached and asked, "Are you looking for your master?"

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; am an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or two, advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, deferential, glad to be of use, politic, cautious, and meticulous; full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; at times, indeed, almost ridiculous— almost, at times, the Fool.

Tom was too deferential.

Ziri was always deferential around Rima's mother.

But while toward cats of his own sex he is fierce and combative, he is just as meek and deferential to his mother as he was in his tender kittenhood.

In A v. UK, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held that Part 4 of the 2001 Act was not a strictly necessary response to the acknowledged emergency evidenced by the attacks in the USA and that the detention of the applicants was in breach of Article 5. This conclusion is noteworthy given that the European Court has in the past adopted a deferential if not supine approach when assessing the legality of derogations under Article 15.

The oscillations were getting so severe that painters on the bridge learned to tie down their tins before a train passed. They found holes and rents in the iron but never reported them as they were never asked, and it wasn't their job. These were deferential times, and few wanted to talk out of turn.