genuflection
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of genuflection
First recorded in 1520–30, genuflection is from the Medieval Latin word genūflexiōn- (stem of genūflexiō ). See genuflect, -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He saw the tribal genuflection as “an empty, performative act” that implied “UW’s presence is somehow illegitimate, shameful, morally wrong.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025
“It’s only a movie, and … a much less impressive one than all the accompanying genuflection would have you believe.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 3, 2024
Still, they’ve all grown too used to each other to engage in much genuflection: When you treat an awards campaign like a full-time job, the other contenders might as well be your co-workers.
From New York Times • Feb. 12, 2024
But Adam didn’t do rhyme and meter, for one thing — too much like mandatory genuflection in church, he once remarked.
From Washington Post • Feb. 23, 2023
The first is their worship of wealth, their devout genuflection before it as the sole choicest gift which fate can bestow, and the second is their merciless and metallic snobbery.
From The Arena Volume 4, No. 20, July, 1891 by Flower, B. O. (Benjamin Orange)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
