kneel

Verb

kneel (third-person singular simple present kneels, present participle kneeling, simple past and past participle knelt or kneeled)

1. (intransitive) To rest on one's bent knees, sometimes only one; to move to such a position.
   • When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
2. (intransitive) To sink down so that the entrance is level with the pavement, making it easier for passengers to enter.
3. (transitive) To cause to kneel.
   • She knelt the doll to fit it into the box.
   • Raising the girl with unexpected strength, she bore her towards the chapel, the firesparks flickered in her eyes, as she knelt her burden against the altar step.1898, K.L. Montgomery, “The Red Rosary”, in The Ludgate Illustrated Magazine, volume 6, page 47
4. (archaic, reflexive) To rest on (one's) knees.
   • He knelt him down to pray.
   • Just when the damsel kneeled herself to pray.1833, Robert Pollok, “The Course of Time”, in The Poetical Works of Hemans, Heber, and Pollok, page 33