Word.ws English Dictionary

on one's hands and knees

on one's hands and knees prepositional phrase: with one's body bent over so that the knees and palms of the hands are touching the floor.

Prepositional phrase

  1. With one's body bent over so that the knees and palms of the hands are touching the floor.
    • […] the fireman has to divide his time between getting up into the bunker to throw more turfs into the cab, and getting down on his hands and knees to get it into the firebox, and even then a reserve supply of turf must be carried on a truck behind the engine, and stops must be made on each steep...1945 January and February, “Notes and News: Locomotive Firing with Turf”, in Railway Magazine, page 46
    • He would walk and rage and drag the steel pole and the wagon and he would drink what anyone would give him and his place as the tragic figure of Frenchtown was coalesced after he was seen on his hands and knees lapping at a puddle to rid his throat of the whiskey burn.2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 30, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 159

Questions about on one's hands and knees

What does on one's hands and knees mean?
On one's hands and knees means with one's body bent over so that the knees and palms of the hands are touching the floor.
What part of speech is on one's hands and knees?
On one's hands and knees is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on one's hands and knees in the dictionary

  1. on one's conscience
  2. on one's deathbed
  3. on one's feet
  4. on one's game
  5. on one's guard
  6. on one's hands and knees
  7. on one's head
  8. on one's high horse
  9. on one's honor
  10. on one's Jack Jones
  11. on one's knees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on one's hands and knees (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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Cite this entry: “on one's hands and knees.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_one%27s_hands_and_knees. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.