bowing and scraping
bowing and scraping is the present participle and gerund of bow and scrape.
Meaning of bow and scrape
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
bowing and scraping (countable and uncountable, plural bowings and scrapings)
Forms of bowing and scraping
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | scraping and bowing |
| Noun | |
| plural | bowings and scrapings |
Questions about bowing and scraping
- What does bowing and scraping mean?
- Bowing and scraping means obsequious or deferential behaviour.
- What is bowing and scraping the present participle and gerund of?
- Bowing and scraping is the present participle and gerund of bow and scrape.
- What part of speech is bowing and scraping?
- Bowing and scraping is a noun.
- What is the plural of bowing and scraping?
- The plural of bowing and scraping is bowings and scrapings.
Words near bowing and scraping in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bowing and scraping (page history and authors); bow and scrape (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:
Cite this entry: “bowing and scraping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowing_and_scraping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.