kowtow - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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From Sinitic 叩頭/叩头 (Cantonese 叩頭/叩头 (kau3 tau4) / Mandarin 叩頭/叩头 (kòutóu)), literally "knock head".
kowtow (third-person singular simple present kowtows, present participle kowtowing, simple past and past participle kowtowed)
- (intransitive, figuratively) To grovel, act in a very submissive manner.
1984 December 30, Jim Davis, Garfield[1] (comic):
I suppose you're going to be nice to Odie and kowtow to Jon and lick the mailman's boots! I don't like you already.
2015, Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 265:
The letter to Razin contained another thought that preoccupied Stalin in the first months after the war: the need to avoid “kowtowing to the West,” including showing “unwarranted respect” for the “military authorities of Germany.”
- (intransitive, historical) To kneel and bow low enough to touch one’s forehead to the ground.
2013, Wendy Swartz, Robert Ford Campany, Yang Lu, Jessey J. C. Choo, Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 645:
When the weather turned cold, the tears that he shed would become frozen like veins; the blood on his forehead from kowtowing would also freeze and would not drip.
- (intransitive) To bow very deeply.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (by extension) To bow to or show obeisance to.
kneel such that forehead touches ground
- Arabic: سَجَدَ (ar) (sajada), تَمَلَّقَ (tamallaqa), رَكَعَ (rakaʕa)
- Chinese:
- Czech: klanět se až k zemi impf
- Danish: knæle, prostrere
- Dutch: knielen (nl), zich (nl) buigen (nl)
- Finnish: tehdä kowtow
- French: se prosterner (fr), s’agenouiller (fr)
- Georgian: ქედმოხრა (kedmoxra)
- German: einen Kotau machen
- Hungarian: földre borul, leborul (hu), hétrét görnyed
- Japanese: 叩頭く (ぬかつく, nukatsuku), 土下座をする (ja) (どげざをする, dogeza o suru)
- Korean: 머리를 조아리다 (meori-reul joarida), 고두(叩頭)하다 (goduhada)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: knele (no), gjøre knefall
- Portuguese: fazer o kowtow, reverenciar (pt)
- Russian: де́лать коуто́у (délatʹ koutóu)
- Serbo-Croatian: klanjati se do zemlje, prostrirati, metanisati (sh)
- Spanish: postrarse (es), prosternarse (es)
- Vietnamese: lạy (vi), khấu đầu (vi) (叩頭), quỳ lạy, khúm núm (vi), quỵ luỵ (vi)
bow deeply
- Dutch: zich (nl) (diep (nl)) buigen (nl)
- Finnish: kumartaa syvään
- Georgian: ქედმოხრა (kedmoxra)
- Hungarian: meghajol (hu)
- Portuguese: prostrar-se
- Russian: де́лать ни́зкий покло́н (délatʹ nízkij poklón)
- Serbo-Croatian: metanisati (sh), klanjati se do zemlje
- Ukrainian: бити чолом (uk) impf (byty čolom), вклонятися impf (vklonjatysja) (торкаючись головою землі)
act submissively
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Armenian: please add this translation if you can
- Burmese: please add this translation if you can
- Czech: poklonkovat
- Danish: underkaste sig, give efter (da), føje, krybe til korset
- Dutch: zich (nl) aanpassen (nl), onderdanig (nl) zijn (nl)
- Esperanto: kliniĝi
- Estonian: please add this translation if you can
- Faroese: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: nöyristellä (fi), kumarrella (fi)
- Georgian: ქედმოხრა (kedmoxra)
- German: kriechen (de), kuschen (de), katzbuckeln (de), dienern (de), zu Kreuze kriechen (de), den Kotau (de) machen
- Greek: please add this translation if you can
- Hebrew: התרפס (he) (hitrapés), התחנף (he) (hitkhanéf), השתעבד (hishtaabéd)
- Hungarian: hajbókol (hu), megalázkodik (hu), csúszik-mászik (hu), alázatoskodik (hu)
- Khmer: please add this translation if you can
- Korean: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: underkaste seg, gi etter (no), føye seg, krype til korset (no)
- Polish: kłaniać się (pl)
- Romanian: please add this translation if you can
- Russian: преклоня́ться (ru) (preklonjátʹsja), пресмыка́ться (ru) (presmykátʹsja), раболе́пствовать (ru) (rabolépstvovatʹ)
- Serbo-Croatian: klanjati se do zemlje, metanisati (sh)
- Spanish: please add this translation if you can
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Vietnamese: khúm núm (vi), quỳ lạy, quỵ luỵ (vi)
- Volapük: please add this translation if you can
- Welsh: please add this translation if you can
- West Coast Bajau: please add this translation if you can
- Wolof: please add this translation if you can
- Yámana: please add this translation if you can
- Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
- Yucatec Maya: please add this translation if you can
- Yup'ik: please add this translation if you can
- Zazaki: please add this translation if you can
- Zhuang: please add this translation if you can
- Zulu: please add this translation if you can
kowtow (plural kowtows)
- The act of kowtowing.
1990, Hugh D. R. Baker, Hong Kong Images: People and Animals, Hong Kong University Press, →ISBN, page 93:
Three elders dressed in their long silk ceremonial gowns perform the kowtow before the altar in their clan ancestral hall.
kowtowing
- Arabic: please add this translation if you can
- Chinese:
- Danish: kowtow, koutou
- Dutch: buiging (nl) f, kotau m
- Finnish: kowtow-kumarrus
- French: kowtow (fr) m
- German: Kotau (de) m
- Japanese: 叩頭 (ja) (こうとう, kōtō), (Japanese way) 土下座 (ja) (どげざ, dogeza)
- Korean: 고두(叩頭) (ko) (godu)
- Norwegian: kowtow
- Portuguese: kowtow m
- Russian: (indeclinable) коуто́у n (koutóu), покло́н (ru) m (poklón)
- Swedish: koutou
- Ukrainian: чолобитна f (čolobytna), чолобиття n (čolobyttja), уклін m (uklin), коутоу n (koutou)
- Vietnamese: khấu đầu (vi) (叩頭), sự quỳ lạy, sự khúm núm (vi)
kowtow m (plural kowtows)
- kowtow (bow low enough to touch one’s forehead to the ground)