Idiom
kiss someone's ring
Meaning
To give respect or reverence to someone; to express servitude to someone.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He refuses to kiss the boss's ring.”
“To get the promotion, he had to kiss the manager's ring and agree with every bad idea.”
“The ambitious politician knew that to secure the party's nomination, he would eventually have to kiss the ring of the powerful incumbent.”
Examples
simple
“He refuses to kiss the boss's ring.”
contextual
“To get the promotion, he had to kiss the manager's ring and agree with every bad idea.”
complex
“The ambitious politician knew that to secure the party's nomination, he would eventually have to kiss the ring of the powerful incumbent.”
Origin
An allusion to a traditional manner of expressing obediance to a bishop (especially the pope) or king.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated