kneeling

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.
4. (archaic, reflexive) To rest on (one's) knees.
   • He knelt him down to pray.