bow and scrape
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
bow and scrape (third-person singular simple present bows and scrapes, present participle bowing and scraping, simple past and past participle bowed and scraped)
- To make a deep bow with the right leg drawn back (thus scraping the floor), left hand pressed across the abdomen, right arm held aside.
- (idiomatic, by extension) To behave in a servile, obsequious, or excessively polite manner.
- 1988 March 27, Newgate Callendar, "Crime" (book review of The Vulgar Boatman by William G. Tapply), New York Times (retrieved 25 Nov 2012):
- But he is not one of those lawyers who bow and scrape before wealthy clients. He will not be pushed around.
- 1988 March 27, Newgate Callendar, "Crime" (book review of The Vulgar Boatman by William G. Tapply), New York Times (retrieved 25 Nov 2012):
Synonyms edit
- (make a deep bow with the right leg draw back): make a leg
- (behave in a servile, obsequious, or excessively polite manner): brownnose, fawn, suck up
Translations edit
behave in a servile, obsequious, or excessively polite manner
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Noun edit
bow and scrape (plural bows and scrapes)
- A deep formal bow with right leg drawn back touching the ground.
- 1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields:
- [H]e took off his Highland bonnet, and performed a bow and scrape.
Translations edit
See also edit
References edit
- “bow and scrape”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.