bow down

present singular third person bows down · participle present bowing down · participle past bowed down · past bowed down

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo bow, to bend oneself as a gesture of deference or respect.

   You were all so powerful, so overwhelming. The whole world bowed down before you.

   c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 2

   2 more examples

   8 Thou shalt not make thee any grauen image, or any likenesse of any thing that is in heauen aboue, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth. 9 Thou shalt not bow downe thy selfe vnto them, nor serue them: for I the Lord thy God am a ielous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers vpon the children, vnto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10 And shewing mercy vnto thousands, of them that loue me, and keepe my commandements.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 5:8–10

   Shepard: The rest of the galaxy isn't just going to bow down just because we tell them to. We'll need the fleets to bring them in line.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel

2. intransitiveslangAfrican-American VernacularTo submit to another; to acknowledge one's inferiority to another.

   You better bow down to my skills.