bow and scrape

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Idioms and Phrases

Behave obsequiously or too deferentially, as in In this fashionable store, the salespersons virtually bow and scrape before customers . This term alludes to the old-fashioned custom of bowing so deeply that one's foot draws back and scrapes the ground. A cliché for a century or more, it may be dying out. [Mid-1600s]

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April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

bow bow back

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