kneel
verb/niːl/ · /kniːl/
Etymology From Middle English knelen, from Old English cnēowlian (“to kneel”), equivalent to knee + -le. Cognate with Dutch knielen, Low German knelen, dialectal German knielen, Alemannic German chnüle, Danish knæle, all meaning “to kneel”.
1
To rest on one's bent knees, sometimes only one; to move to such a position.
- When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
2
To sink down so that the entrance is level with the pavement, making it easier for passengers to enter.
Of a bus or other vehicle
3
To cause to kneel.
- She knelt the doll to fit it into the box.
- Raising the girl with unexpected strength, she bore her towards the chapel, the firesparks flickered in her eyes, as she knelt her burden against the altar step.1898, K.L. Montgomery, “The Red Rosary”, in The Ludgate Illustrated Magazine, volume 6, page 47:
2 more examples
- Kneel him down and stick his head in. No, don't let him up, just hold him there.2007, Norman Horrod, On a Different Note, page 47:
- He took the wife in his car to the piney woods outside town, and knelt her down.2011, Joseph T. Wells, Fraud Fighter: My Fables and Foibles, page 201:
4
Archaic To rest on (one's) knees.
- He knelt him down to pray.
- Just when the damsel kneeled herself to pray.1833, Robert Pollok, “The Course of Time”, in The Poetical Works of Hemans, Heber, and Pollok, page 33:
- Derived terms
- kneel before, kneeler, kneeling bus, kneeling chair, kneelo
- Hyponyms
- kneel down, genuflect