bow and scrape meaning: definition, quotations

bow and scrape

verb

/ˌbaʊ ən ˈskɹeɪp/

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.

Broadly, Idiomatic To behave in a servile, obsequious, or excessively polite manner.

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)

noun

A deep formal bow with right leg drawn back touching the ground.

[H]e took off his Highland bonnet, and performed a bow and scrape.1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC: