genuflection

English

Alternative forms

• genuflexion (British)

Noun

genuflection (countable and uncountable, plural genuflections)

1. the act of genuflecting
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     Those impious Pigs,
     Who, by frequent squeaks, have dared impugn
     The settled Swellfoot system, or to make
     Irreverent mockery of the genuflexions
     Inculcated by the arch-priest, have been whipt
     Into a loyal and an orthodox whine.

   • 2025 January 12, David Remnick, “The Inauguration of Trump's Oligarchy”, in The New Yorker:

     Certain business titans have made Mar-A-Lago a scene of such flagrant self-abnegation, ring-kissing, and genuflection that it would embarrass a medieval Pope.

Translations

the act of genuflecting, in the sense of bowing down

• Belarusian: кле́нчанне n (kljénčannje)
• Bulgarian: колени́чене n (koleníčene)
• Dutch: kniebuiging (nl) f
• Finnish: polvistuminen (fi)
• French: génuflexion (fr) f
• German: Niederknien n, Kniebeuge (de) f, Kniefall (de) m
• Greek: γονυκλισία (el) f (gonyklisía)
• Icelandic: knébeyging f, knéfall f
• Irish: umhlú m
• Italian: genuflessione (it) f
• Polish: klękanie (pl) n, uklęknięcie (pl) n
• Portuguese: genuflexão (pt) f
• Romanian: genuflexiune (ro) f, genuflexare f
• Russian: коленопреклоне́ние (ru) n (kolenopreklonénije)
• Spanish: genuflexión (es) f, postración (es) f
• Ukrainian: колінопреклоні́ння n (kolinopreklonínnja)