genuflection

especially British, gen·u·flex·ion

[jen-yoo-flek-shuhn]

noun

1. an act of bending the knee or touching it to the ground in reverence or worship.

Word History and Origins

Origin of genuflection¹

First recorded in 1520–30, genuflection is from the Medieval Latin word genūflexiōn- (stem of genūflexiō ). See genuflect, -ion

Example Sentences

Much as there is for its fans to mourn about the alleged closure of the “Downton Abbey” franchise, I won’t miss the increasingly tone-deaf genuflection before the glamour of British privilege.

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The pessimists fear he might abandon even the hollow genuflection that the US still makes to the idea of a creating an independent Palestine alongside Israel – the so-called two state solution.

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Or is something else happening; is the press manifesting an unadmitted genuflection to raw power, exercised arbitrarily, out of calculated self-preservation?

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At earlier hearings, university presidents opted for strategies of conciliatory genuflection or drab, lawyerly answers.

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“It’s only a movie, and … a much less impressive one than all the accompanying genuflection would have you believe.”

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