Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor or ground, as in worship.
- v. To be servilely respectful or deferential; grovel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To bend the knee, as in an act of worship or of respect; perform genuflection.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To bend the knee, as in servitude or worship
- v. intransitive To behave in a servile manner; to grovel.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To bend the knee, as in worship.
WordNet 3.0
- v. bend the knees and bow in church or before a religious superior or image
- v. bend the knees and bow in a servile manner
Etymologies
- From around 1620–1630 from Medieval Latin genūflectō ("I bend the knee") equivalent to the Latin genū ("knee") + flectō ("to bend"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin genūflectere : Latin genū, knee; see genu-1 in Indo-European roots + Latin flectere, to bend. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I'm shocked, SHOCKED … dgardner @TonyClement_MP: There are options between "genuflect" and "dismiss with extreme prejudice.”
“Maybe it's a stretch, but I think it's a take off of the word "genuflect," which means to go down on your knees.”
“genuflect," but it doesn't matter, because it's hot girls with large breasts and wearing tight clothing fighting a giant mutated frog!”
“Looking back at Labour health policy now, I have to ask myself how so many of us were unable to see through the mists of what Leys and Player call the "misrepresentation, obfuscation, and deception" perpetrated by Blair, Brown, and a host of health ministers all too willing to genuflect to the market zeitgeist.”
The Guardian: The Plot Against the NHS by Colin Leys and Stewart Player – review
“Instead they genuflect to the allegedly superior wisdom of markets, and retreat to the comfort zone of saying that the best and only thing they can do is to balance their books – precisely the wrong thing to do in the wake of a financial crisis.”
The Guardian: Observer editorial: Our leaders need to seize control of the crisis
“So there you have it: the great high priest of Darwinian Dogma has spoken; all nonsense perhaps, but atheists, please genuflect.”
“Now, in fairness, we conservatives don't genuflect when someone invokes the Gray Lady as the ultimate authority in all matters temporal and spiritual.”
“This crew, which could not even see the $8 trillion housing bubble that was about to wreck the economy, wants the whole country to genuflect before their projections of deficits for 10 or 15 years into the future.”
The Huffington Post: Dean Baker: Beneficent Counterfeiters and Economic Stimulus
“Importantly, the Supreme Court remains under the sway of free market fundamentalists who genuflect to corporate needs in almost every decision.”
The Huffington Post: Danny Schechter: Not Much New: The Economic Policy Burden That Haunts Obama
“Congressmen genuflect when LaPierre walks in a room and the press fawns over him as though he really has the interests of anyone but Wayne LaPierre at heart.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘genuflect’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Knee-ded Words
In honor (?) of John
aknee, anomalogonatous, anticnemion, bainberg, bandy-jig, besagne, bight, bott, knee, breast-knee, cartilage, cnemapophysis and 155 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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truman486's list
Masterbatory Aids
ensorcelled, scintilla, maudlin, lugubrious, frisson, praxis, copasetic, crotch, corollary, bandy, undulating, anthropomorphic and 65 more...
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WOOZ
Words contained in the screenplay of Wizard of Oz, 1939 film.
Comments show the actual "line" from the film.
The words are tagged for grade-levelpusillanimous, genuflect, cataclysmic, vernacular, peasantry, aver, caliginous, tedious, advent, careworn, bovine, commodity and 34 more...
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SAT Master Vocab List
Words I have come across that I don't know the meaning of!
rumination, contrition, extemporize, effusion, exult, vexed, sumptuous, punitive, brethren, harridan, macabre, acrid and 123 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Words. Just words.
Our chief weapons are words, that's all. Just words. Only words, not justly words, that is.
That is to say that there are only words in this list, not words that are just, although s...profligacy, monty, the arc of history, luddite, peremptory, brusque, languid, callipygian, perniciously, insidiousness, camelot, perforce and 189 more...
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just words.
coquette, solecism, peripherally, recrudescence, viscid, turpitude, sententious, light-heeled, interminably, unflappable, palpably, solicitous and 215 more...
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Gre words
a list of the words i HAVE to know..
calumny, demagogue, filigree, quandary, peregrination, quotidian, puerile, cogent, corroborate, martinet, inhibited, polyglot and 105 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for genuflect.
dbekeny LION
(sings)
And the sparrow would take wing
'F -- I...'f -- I...were King!
Each rabbit would show respect to me. The
chipmunks...
...genuflect to me.
Though my tail would lash
I would show compash
For every underling.
'F -- I...'f -- I --- were King
Just King!....
Jun 11, 2010
PossibleUnderscore Funny song... I have to agree with you. Jul 17, 2009
chained_bear First you get down on your knees
Fiddle with your rosaries
Bow your head in great respect and--
Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect...
--Tom Lehrer, "The Vatican Rag"
I can't help it, I start singing this song every time I see this word. Probably because I'm Catholic, I find it unbelievably amusing. Jan 14, 2008