Link Centre Dictionary

genuflect

ge·nuf·lect

US/ˈd͡ʒɛn.jʊ.flɛkt/ uncommon archaic

verb

1.

bend the knees and bow in church or before a religious superior or image

2.

bend the knees and bow in a servile manner

Synonyms

Origin

PIE word *ǵónu From around 1620-1630 from Medieval Latin genūflectō (“to bend the knee”) equivalent to the Latin genū (“knee”) + flectō (“to bend”).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.