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.
To her left, Melvin Gibbs played electric bass—sometimes nonchalantly, sometimes with one bent knee, as if in genuflection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
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.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2025
At earlier hearings, university presidents opted for strategies of conciliatory genuflection or drab, lawyerly answers.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2024
“It’s gracious. It makes a genuflection in the direction of Biden and America without actually giving anything away.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 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.
