Word.ws English Dictionary

on bended knee

on bended knee prepositional phrase: in a kneeling position.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (dated) In a kneeling position.
    • On bended knee full long he prayed.1898, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Franklin's Maid”, in Songs of Action
  2. (broadly) Supplicatingly, imploringly, suppliantly.
    • Mr. Skinner said airports would not have to rely as much on their airline tenants to approve expansion. "They will be able to build new gates without going to an airline on bended knee," he said.1990 November 5, John H. Cushman Jr., “Airports planning for big windfall”, in New York Times, retrieved 07 Nov 2017
    • "Howard Dean is the only candidate to have smashed fundraising records, not by going on bended knee to the wealthy but by empowering ordinary Americans to take part in their democracy," Mr Gross said.2004 February 19, Julian Borger, “Party's over, but the Deaniacs are here to stay”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 07 Nov 2017

Questions about on bended knee

What does on bended knee mean?
On bended knee means in a kneeling position.
What part of speech is on bended knee?
On bended knee is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on bended knee in the dictionary

  1. on bad terms
  2. on bail
  3. on balance
  4. on base
  5. on behalf of
  6. on bended knee
  7. on Bible
  8. on blast
  9. on board
  10. on book
  11. on brand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on bended knee (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.

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