bend the knee

present singular third person bends the knee · participle present bending the knee · participle past bent the knee · past bent the knee

1. idiomaticTo swear fealty or allegiance to another person.

   Joffrey, Renly, Robb Stark: they're all thieves. They'll bend the knee or I'll destroy them.

   2012, David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, “The North Remembers”, in Game of Thrones, season 2, episode 1, spoken by Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane)

   2 more examples

   The timid among them declared that he would burn the houses and hang all that had bent the knee to King Louis.

   1905, Max Pemberton, The Hundred Days, page 137

   The Earls have power over their lands and people, but must bend the knee to the King and serve as his vassals, just as their own vassals bend the knee to them, and serve them.

   2001, Cynthia Voigt, Elske, page 129

2. idiomaticTo submit to or show reverence toward a divine power.

   For one thing, Christians refused to bend the knee to anyone but God, certainly not to Caesar.

   2006, James W. White, Christianity 101: Tracing Basic Beliefs, page 55

   2 more examples

   Jezebel, though she bent the knee to Baal, was pleasing in Ahab’s sight; and he saw that her father’s army, though deplorably pagan, wielded heavy swords.

   1928 January, Ernest C. Wilson, “A King and a Kingdom That Limped”, in Youth, volume 2, number 1, page 13

   We will realize that in our weakness He is strong and that as we bend the knee to His lordship, God is more than able to deliver us.

   2001, Beth Moore, Living Free: Learning to Pray God's Word, page 86

3. broadlyidiomaticTo show undue deference, obedience, or support for someone or something.

   Kafka had bent the knee to his father’s desires and taken a job in an insurance office.

   2016, Stuart Jeffries, Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School, page 166

   2 more examples

   Some thought we had in Mr. [Abraham] Lincoln the nerve and decision of an Oliver Cromwell; but the result shows that we merely have a continuation of the Pierces and Buchanans, and that the Republican President bends the knee to slavery as readily as any of his infamous predecessors.

   1861 April, Frederick Douglass, “The Inaugural Address”, in Douglass' Monthly, volume III, number XI, page 434

   But there's something more sinister in the need for companies to bend the knee to Washington politicians.

   2013, Gary Shapiro, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World's Most Successful Businesses, page 117