bow and scrape
/ˌbaʊ ən ˈskɹeɪp/
bow and scrape verb: to make a deep bow with the right leg drawn back (thus scraping the floor), left hand pressed across the abdomen, right arm held aside.
Verb
bow and scrape (third-person singular simple present bows and scrapes, present participle bowing and scraping, simple past and past participle bowed and scraped)
- To make a deep bow with the right leg drawn back (thus scraping the floor), left hand pressed across the abdomen, right arm held aside.
- Synonyms:
- make a leg
- To behave in a servile, obsequious, or excessively polite manner.
- But he is not one of those lawyers who bow and scrape before wealthy clients. He will not be pushed around.1988 March 27, Newgate Callendar, "Crime" (book review of The Vulgar Boatman by William G. Tapply), New York Times (retrieved 25 Nov 2012)
Noun
bow and scrape (plural bows and scrapes)
- A deep formal bow with right leg drawn back touching the ground.
- [H]e took off his Highland bonnet, and performed a bow and scrape.1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC
bow and scrape meaning in Bengali
bow and scrape in Bengali
- দাসত্বমূলক, অতিভক্তিপূর্ণ, অতিরিক্ত ভদ্র আচরণ করা
Synonyms of bow and scrape
14 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of bow and scrape
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | bows and scrapes |
| present participle | bowing and scraping |
| past participle | bowed and scraped |
| past | bowed and scraped |
| alternative form | scrape and bow |
| Noun | |
| plural | bows and scrapes |
Questions about bow and scrape
- What does bow and scrape mean?
- Bow and scrape means to make a deep bow with the right leg drawn back (thus scraping the floor), left hand pressed across the abdomen, right arm held aside.
- What is bow and scrape in Bengali?
- Bow and scrape in Bengali is দাসত্বমূলক, অতিভক্তিপূর্ণ, অতিরিক্ত ভদ্র আচরণ করা. See Bow and scrape meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is bow and scrape?
- Bow and scrape can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce bow and scrape?
- Bow and scrape is pronounced /ˌbaʊ ən ˈskɹeɪp/.
- What is the past tense of bow and scrape?
- The past tense of bow and scrape is bowed and scraped.
Words near bow and scrape in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bow and scrape (page history and authors); bow and scrape (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bow and scrape.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bow and scrape.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bow_and_scrape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.