bow the knee Definition

knee
noun knees

1. In humans: the joint in the middle of the leg where the lower end of the femur articulates with the upper end of the tibia.
2a. The corresponding joint in the hindlimb of other vertebrates;
2b. In a horse's foreleg: the joint corresponding to the wrist.
3. The area surrounding this joint. Also as adj and in compounds.

Example: knee-length
4. The lap.

Example: sat with the child on her knee
5. The part of a garment covering the knee.

Example: patches on the knee and elbow
6. Something which resembles the knee in action or shape.
7. bot.
A root upgrowth that trees growing in swamps breathe through.

verb kneed, kneeing

1. To hit, nudge or shove someone or something with the knee.
2. To make (clothing) baggy at the knee.

Derivative: kneed

Said of trousers: baggy at the knees.

Having knees or angular joints.

Idiom: at one's mother's knee

Said of truths, lessons, etc: (first learnt, heard, etc) when one was very young.

Idiom: bend the knee (bow the knee)

formal or literary
To kneel; to submit.

Idiom: bring someone their knees

To defeat, prostrate, humiliate or ruin them utterly.

Idiom: go weak at the knees

colloq
To be overcome by emotion.

Idiom: on one's knees

Kneeling.

Exhausted.

Begging.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon cneow.