Meanings
- With one's body bent over so that the knees and palms of the hands are touching the floor.
He would walk and rage and drag the steel pole and the wagon and he would drink what anyone would give him and his place as the tragic figure of Frenchtown was coalesced after he was seen on his hands and knees lapping at a puddle to rid his throat of the whiskey burn.
2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 30, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 1591 more example
[…] the fireman has to divide his time between getting up into the bunker to throw more turfs into the cab, and getting down on his hands and knees to get it into the firebox, and even then a reserve supply of turf must be carried on a truck behind the engine, and stops must be made on each steep ascent to raise more steam.
1945 January and February, “Notes and News: Locomotive Firing with Turf”, in Railway Magazine, page 46
Translations
Italian carponi
- carponiTranslations
Cite this entry
on one's hands and knees. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20one's%20hands%20and%20knees
“on one's hands and knees.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20one's%20hands%20and%20knees. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on one's hands and knees,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20one's%20hands%20and%20knees.
Source: on one's hands and knees on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.