Word.ws English Dictionary

curtsey

Syllables: curt·sey/ˈkɜːtsɪ/US/ˈkɝtsɪ/

curtsey noun: a small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses the shin of one leg behind the calf of her other leg and briefly bends her knees to lower her body in deference.

curtsey: a small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses the shin of one leg behind...
Image: Slick, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

curtsey (plural curtsies or curtseys)

  1. A small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses the shin of one leg behind the calf of her other leg and briefly bends her knees to lower her body in deference.
    • I refused to make so much as a curtsey for the passing nobles, as I am a staunch egalitarian.
    • Wid. I take my leaue with many thouſand thankes. / Rich. The Match is made, ſhee ſeales it with a Curſie.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Verb

curtsey (third-person singular simple present curtseys or curtsies, present participle curtseying, simple past and past participle curtseyed)

  1. To make a curtsey.
    • The hotel's staff never curtsied, nodded, or bowed to the owner as she passed, as they were staunch egalitarians.
    • "I’m sure you’ll excuse me, sir," said Mrs Varden, rising and curtseying.1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 19.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC

curtsey meaning in Thai

curtsey in Thai

to make a curtsey
ถอนสายบัว

Examples of curtsey in a sentence

  • No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed.1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter II, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:
  • 'I be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him[…]1887, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter XVI, in Allan Quatermain […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

Forms of curtsey

Noun
pluralcurtsies
pluralcurtseys
alternative formcurtsy
alternative formcourtsey
alternative formcourtesy
Verb
third-person singular presentcurtseys
third-person singular presentcurtsies
present participlecurtseying
past participlecurtseyed
pastcurtseyed

Origin of curtsey

Variant of courtesy (1525) (from court + -esy), from Middle English curteisie, curtesie, from Anglo-Norman curtesie, from Old French curteisie, cortoisie.

Words formed from curtsey

Questions about curtsey

What does curtsey mean?
Curtsey means a small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses the shin of one leg behind the calf of her other leg and briefly bends her knees to lower her body in deference.
What is curtsey in Thai?
Curtsey in Thai is ถอนสายบัว. See Curtsey meaning in Thai.
How do you use curtsey in a sentence?
No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed.
What part of speech is curtsey?
Curtsey can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce curtsey?
Curtsey is pronounced /ˈkɝtsɪ/ (US).
What is the plural of curtsey?
The plural of curtsey is curtsies.

Words near curtsey in the dictionary

  1. curtosis
  2. curtotic
  3. curtovirus
  4. curtoviruses
  5. curts
  6. curtsey
  7. curtseyed
  8. curtseyer
  9. curtseyers
  10. curtseying
  11. curtseyings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: curtsey (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-curtsey.wav.

Cite this entry: “curtsey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/curtsey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.