Idiom
bend the knee
Meaning
To swear fealty or allegiance to another person.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The knight had to bend the knee to his new king.”
“In the old stories, the defeated rebels were forced to bend the knee to the queen to save their lives.”
“The proud lord refused to bend the knee, choosing instead to face exile rather than swear his loyalty to a ruler he despised.”
Examples
simple
“The knight had to bend the knee to his new king.”
contextual
“In the old stories, the defeated rebels were forced to bend the knee to the queen to save their lives.”
complex
“The proud lord refused to bend the knee, choosing instead to face exile rather than swear his loyalty to a ruler he despised.”
Origin
Calque of Latin genūflectō. Popularized by its use on the television series Game of Thrones (2011-2019).
Key words
Related idioms
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