1. Ready and willing to be taught; teachable: The teacher's students were docile and eager to learn.
2. Yielding to supervision, direction, or management; tractable: Trudy's co-workers turned out to be a very docile group with whom to work.
3. Amenable to training or handling; easily managed; obedient and non-resistive: Jennifer had a docile, well-behaved pet.

When a child becomes unusually pliant, obedient, manageable, and excessively subservient, he or she may, in short, become docile.

Docile people sometimes wonder why they are not more popular; after all, they never make any trouble for anyone.

Other people usually find nothing admirable or necessarily likable about a docile person who is willing to be pushed around, or who does what she or he is told out of fear of offending others.

It's considered a poor upbringing when parents don't allow a docile youngster some room for self-expression, and for the release of tension and hostility.

4. Etymology: "easily taught", from Italian or French docile, from Latin docilis, "easily taught" and so, "easily managed".