touch the hem of someone's garment

present singular third person touches the hem of someone's garment · participle present touching the hem of someone's garment · participle past touched the hem of someone's garment · past touched the hem of someone's garment · alternative kiss someone's hem · alternative kiss the hem of someone's garment · alternative touch someone's hem · alternative touch someone's robe · alternative touch the hem of someone's robe

1. idiomaticTo give respect or reverence to someone; to express servitude to someone; to draw strength or comfort from someone who is superior.

   "I do love you," he said with a strong effort to control himself, "but I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment."

   1903, Irving Bacheller, chapter 29, in Darrel of the Blessed Isles

   3 more examples

   Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of Grand-Pré Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his household. Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his missal, Fixed his eyes upon her, as the saint of his deepest devotion; Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem of her garment!

   1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter 1, in Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, part I

   President Clinton is due at Brooklyn College. . . . "If he just wants to cut a ribbon or let us touch the hem of his garment, we don't need that."

   1994 March 9, Todd S. Purdum, “Clinton's Coming to New York, But Mayor May Skip Invitation”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 Sep 2013

   Nelson Mandela . . . can bathe in the adulation of a worldwide throng yearning to, if not touch the hem of his garment, at least catch a glimpse of him whirring by in a motorcade.

   2001 June 24, Richard Lacayo, “A Hero's Welcome”, in Time, retrieved 17 Sep 2013