genuflection
nounEtymology Borrowed from Latin genuflexio, though with standardized spelling. By surface analysis, genuflect (“to bend the knee”) + -ion (Latinate abstract-noun suffix).
1
The act of genuflecting.
- 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.1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
- 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.2025 January 12, David Remnick, “The Inauguration of Trump's Oligarchy”, in The New Yorker: