bow and scrape

English

Alternative forms

• scrape and bow

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌbaʊ ən ˈskɹeɪp/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

bow and scrape (third-person singular simple present bows and scrapes, present participle bowing and scraping, simple past and past participle bowed and scraped)

1. 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.
2. (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.

Synonyms

• (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

behave in a servile, obsequious, or excessively polite manner

• Bulgarian: раболепнича (bg) (rabolepniča)
• French: (informal) passer de la pommade (fr), (vulgar) lécher le cul (fr), (informal) caresser dans le sens du poil (fr), (colloquial) cirer les pompes (fr)
• Polish: bić pokłony impf
• Russian: расша́ркиваться (ru) impf (rasšárkivatʹsja)

Noun

bow and scrape (plural bows and scrapes)

1. 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

deep formal bow

• German: Kratzfuß (de) m

See also

• kowtow

References

• “bow and scrape”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• scrape and bow