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Bow down   /baʊ daʊn/   Listen
Bow down

verb
1.
Get into a prostrate position, as in submission.  Synonym: prostrate.
2.
Bend one's knee or body, or lower one's head.  Synonym: bow.  "She bowed her head in shame"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Bow down" Quotes from Famous Books



... is a thing called love. I think women are none the better for knowing it. To a woman, it means to take some man—some utterly commonplace man, perhaps—perhaps, only an idle poseur such as you are, Felix—and to set him up on a pedestal, and to bow down and worship him; and to protest loudly, both to the world and to herself, that in spite of all appearances her idol really hasn't feet of clay, or that, at any rate, it is the very nicest clay in the world. For a time she ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell

... mine arms full Moon of brightest blee * Nor did that sun eclipse in goblet see: I nighted spying fire whereto bow down * Magians, which bowed from ewer's ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton

... but not here. As long as I have the instinct of ethics, as long as I feel myself constrained to bow down in the dust before goodness, to deem myself unworthy to tie the latchet of the shoes of the hero or the saint; so long as I see the course of the world steadily, undeniably, ascending the sacred hill of progress, so long must I confess that the Power behind the veil, behind the ...
— Morality as a Religion - An exposition of some first principles • W. R. Washington Sullivan

... difference between Tannhaeuser and a tom-tom. Mary would like to be pretty and she lives in a place where if she was as beautiful as Cinderella, nobody but a bunch of hill-bullies would ever see her. I want power, power that the world's got to bow down to and acknowledge—and I might just as well be locked up in somebody' hen-house. Well, maybe it's enough for you only to dream about the music you don't ever expect to hear, but as for me, I dream, too, and a dream ain't much use to me unless I can turn it into facts. I'm going to ...
— Destiny • Charles Neville Buck

... regular sickness of campaigning among these savages. Talk about pirates, Captain Stilwell, why, I had rather fall among pirates any day than among these bloodthirsty wretches. Calls themselves Christians too! The pirates wasn't hypocrites, in that way, anyhow; they didn't bow down on their knees before every little trumpery doll stuck up by the wayside, and then go and cut a man's throat afterward—it was all fair and square with them. Anyways, it don't matter to me, as I see, whether ...
— The Bravest of the Brave - or, with Peterborough in Spain • G. A. Henty

... with, and natural to man. At any rate, there must be something in the nature of man, or in the exterior conditions of humanity, which invariably leads man to worship, and which determines him, as by the force of an original instinct, or an outward, conditioning necessity, to recognize and bow down before a Superior Power. The full recognition and adequate explanation of the facts of religious history will constitute ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... took a different view of Ella's share in the business; she knew her better than her mother did, and consequently refused to believe that she was a Philistine at heart. It was her absurd infatuation for George that made her see with his eyes and bow down before the hideous household gods he had chosen to erect. On such weakness ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey

... darkness, are lighted by transparencies, exhibiting, in large characters, the words "Bal de Societe." —"Happy people!" says Sterne, "who can lay down all your cares together, and dance and sing and sport away the weights of grievance, which bow down the spirit of other nations ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... fire. After the departure of Judas to meet the foe, Simon, the Israelitish Man, and the Israelitish Woman follow each other in denunciation of the idolatries which have been practised by the heathen among them, and close with the splendid chorus, "We never will bow down to the rude Stock or sculptured Stone," in which vigorous repetitions of the opening phrase lead to a chorale in broad, impressive harmony, with which is interwoven equally vigorous repetitions of the ...
— The Standard Oratorios - Their Stories, Their Music, And Their Composers • George P. Upton

... Pines. It appears that our vaudevillain (isn't that a nice name for dear Eddy?) passed round the word that Mr. Storm had no invitation to this dance, when all the time he had come on the behest of some fearfully celebrated man in New York every one seems to bow down to. Collapse ...
— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)

... singing. I do not mean exclusively in Debussy, though we all know that as a singer of Debussy ... she has scarce a rival. Take her mezza voce and her phrasing in the second act of Monna Vanna, take them and bow down before them. Ponder a moment her singing in Thais. The converted Thais, about to betake herself desertward with the insistent monk, has a solo to sing. The solo is Massenet, simon-pure Massenet, the idol of the Paris ...
— The Merry-Go-Round • Carl Van Vechten

... wits. This inactivity was death. The escaping air hissed in my ears. Our precious air, escaping away into the vacant desolation of the Lunar emptiness. Through one of the twisted, slanting dome windows a rocky spire was visible. The Planetara lay bow down, wedged in a jagged cradle of Lunar rock. A miracle that the hull and dome had ...
— Brigands of the Moon • Ray Cummings

... Murillo's renowned pictures is that of the patron saints of Seville, 'Santa Rufina and Santa Justina,' who were stoned to death for refusing to bow down to the ...
— The Old Masters and Their Pictures - For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art • Sarah Tytler

... weak, Thus he, while tears his utterance broke, In answer to the monarch spoke: "Hear then the words that Rama said, Resolved in duty's path to tread. Joining his hands, his head he bent, And gave this message, reverent: "Sumantra, to my father go, Whose lofty mind all people know: Bow down before him, as is meet, And in my stead salute his feet. Then to the queen my mother bend, And give the greeting that I send: Ne'er may her steps from duty err, And may it still be well with her. And add this ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... as she shone through the night * And she gilded the grove with her gracious sight: From her radiance the sun taketh increase when * She unveileth and shameth the moonshine bright. Bow down all beings between her hands * As she showeth charms with her veil undight. And she foodeth cities[FN13] with torrent tears * When she flasheth her ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... the food and then blessed Jacob, whom he supposed to be Esau. He promised a great and prosperous future for him. People and nations should serve him, and his brothers should bow down to him. Scarcely had Jacob left his father, when Esau came back with the food his father had asked him to bring ...
— The Farmer Boy; the Story of Jacob • J. H. Willard

... stem-post breaks away, and she is loose. With perfect composure Bradley seizes the great scull oar, places it in the stern rowlock, and pulls with all his power (and he is an athlete) to turn the bow of the boat downstream, for he wishes to go bow down, rather than to drift broadside on. One, two strokes he makes, and a third just as she goes over, and the boat is fairly turned, and she goes down almost beyond our sight, though we are more than a hundred feet above the river. ...
— Little Masterpieces of Science: Explorers • Various

... beat her with sticks and stoned her. As she lay bleeding and half dead the native idols were brought out and placed before her. 'Now she bows down,' the mob cried; but the girl answered. 'No, I do not; you have put me here. I can never bow down to gods of wood and stone who cannot hear me.' Eventually, after suffering ill-treatment daily, she ran ...
— Noble Deeds of the World's Heroines • Henry Charles Moore

... but to our imagination. She must be a real heroine, while our perfection is but ideal. And the quick and dangerous fancy of our race will, at first, rise to the pitch. She is all we can conceive. Mild and pure as youthful priests, we bow down before our altar. But the idol to which we breathe our warm and gushing vows, and bend our eager knees, all its power, does it not exist only in our idea; all its beauty, is it not the creation of our excited fancy? And then the sweetest of superstitions ends. The long delusion bursts, ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli

... came back to the hospital regularly, every day, for the morning service. After listening attentively for a few weeks, he said to the doctor, "I-seng, I truly know this is a good religion and is just what I want, and I have decided to bow down to this very God." ...
— Notable Women Of Modern China • Margaret E. Burton

... ever see such a tyranny as this of fashion?" said Humming-Bird. "We know it's silly, but we all bow down before it; we are afraid of our lives before it; and who makes all this and sets it going? The Paris milliners, ...
— Household Papers and Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... the machine, the bow has a natural tendency to tilt down when the motor is cut off—particularly as the propeller-draught ceases to sweep under the sustaining planes. Therefore one can, in such a machine, switch off safely without first shifting the elevator, and getting the bow down as a preliminary. What the pilot had forgotten, for the moment, was the essential difference between monoplane and biplane. When he had switched off the engine in the biplane, and moved his elevator as he was accustomed to do, he found to his dismay that the machine failed to respond. Instead ...
— Learning to Fly - A Practical Manual for Beginners • Claude Grahame-White

... in the New Year. I really do wish you happiness and bow down to your little feet. Be happy, ...
— Letters of Anton Chekhov • Anton Chekhov

... shall repay the faithful Ta-den? Greatly do we honor our priests. Within the temples even the chiefs and the king himself bow down to them. No greater honor could Ko-tan confer upon a subject—who wished to be a priest, but I did not so wish. Priests other than the high priest must become eunuchs for they may ...
— Tarzan the Terrible • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... therefrom to escape the clatter of plebeian toil and the noxious contact with the unhealthy, unwealthy herd. Here the humans entertained selected friends who came at the ends of weeks to admire the splendor of Omar Ben's tail, to bow down to the humans' money, and to hate them fiercely ...
— A Night Out • Edward Peple

... light, make me drop my pen, and put science and study to flight in grief and alarm, as she compelled my admiration by the alluring pose I had seen but a short time before. Sometimes I went to seek her in the spirit world, and would bow down to her as to a hope, entreating her to let me hear the silver sounds of her voice, and I would wake at ...
— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac

... while it is possible, let us recover ourselves from our fall, let us not despair of restoration, if we break loose from our vices. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. "Oh, come, let us worship and bow down," let us weep before him. His word, calling us to repentance, lifts up its voice and cries aloud, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." There is, then, a way to be saved, if we ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various

... Prasantatman, Viswatman, Viswatomukha, Characharatman, Sukhsmatman, the merciful Maitreya. These are the hundred and eight names of Surya of immeasurable energy, as told by the self-create (Brahma). For the acquisition of prosperity, I bow down to thee, O Bhaskara, blazing like unto gold or fire, who is worshipped of the gods and the Pitris and the Yakshas, and who is adored by Asuras, Nisacharas, and Siddhas. He that with fixed attention reciteth this hymn at sunrise, obtaineth wife and offspring and riches and the memory of his former ...
— Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 1 • Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

... which another legend states that he "determined their fate." He was "the hero, whose net overthrows the enemy, who summons his army to plunder the hostile land, the royal son who caused his father to bow down to him from afar." "The son who sat not with the nurse, and eschewed(?) the strength of milk," "the offspring who did not know his father." "He rode over the mountains and scattered seed—unanimously the plants proclaimed ...
— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Theophilus G. Pinches

... He had been boot-boy in a ducal household early in his career; and he considered duchesses' nieces to be people before whom one should bow down. ...
— The Rosary • Florence L. Barclay

... Peter's dome, illuminated and towering into the vasty sky; and it seems as if his soul, upborne on the surging waves of music, had reached its highest elevation. But no. Influences from without, inexplicable, unexpected, join to enhance his own attempts; the heavens themselves seem to bow down and to flash forth inconceivable splendors on his amazed spirit, till the limitations of time and space are gone—'there is no more near ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson

... some for me! Now good-night to you—I must see that girl again to-morrow. Gad, when I once get her safe to Lyonesse House, she shall wear the cross-gartered sandals, the blue skirt with the red sash, and if London does not bow down and worship, I am no ...
— Patsy • S. R. Crockett

... appears ridiculous ought to be done in one of the Church's sacraments. But it seems ridiculous to perform gestures, e.g. for the priest to stretch out his arms at times, to join his hands, to join together his fingers, and to bow down. Consequently, such things ought not to ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... immediately noticed the audacious young officer, whose eye met his askance and pleadingly. The king beckoned to him, and as Baron Kaphengst stood erect before him, the king said, laughingly; "It is truly difficult to exchange secrets with one of your height; bow down to me, I have something to ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach

... and had halted the cycle of rebirths. He was said to wander through the land, teaching, surrounded by disciples, without possession, without home, without a wife, in the yellow cloak of an ascetic, but with a cheerful brow, a man of bliss, and Brahmans and princes would bow down before him and would ...
— Siddhartha • Herman Hesse

... death and end of all things, then How should not that which life held best for men And proved most precious, though it seem undone By force of death and woful victory won, Be first and surest of revival, when Death shall bow down to life arisen again? So shall the soul seen be the self-same one That looked and spake with even such lips and eyes As love shall doubt not then to recognise, And all bright thoughts and smiles of all time past Revive, transfigured, but in spirit and sense None other than we knew, for ...
— Sonnets, and Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets (1590-1650) • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... themselves in heaven, and men on earth House in the shade of comfortable roofs, Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls, I, 'twixt the spring and downfal of the light Bow down one thousand and two hundred times To Christ, the Virgin Mother and the Saints: Or in the night, after a little sleep, I wake, the chill stars sparkle; I am wet With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost, I wear an undressed ...
— A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich, Conn • S.R. Calthrop

... bow down, those who have many heads lower them all at the same time. He raises his hand on high in the ...
— The Temptation of St. Antony - or A Revelation of the Soul • Gustave Flaubert

... my resistance and my contempt. Never—do you hear me, Daniel?—never will I bow down before her. Never shall my hand touch hers. And, if my father persists, I shall ask him, the day before his wedding, to allow me to bury myself in ...
— The Clique of Gold • Emile Gaboriau

... cure for that! It is the remembrance of the Divine Man and the dignified patience with which he bore the insults of the rabble crowd upon his day of trial! You know what those insults were, and how he bore them! Bow down before his majestic meekness, and pay him the homage of obedience to his command of ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... the bearers of the sacred vessel, which is kept in a shrine. They are followed by Amfortas, in his litter, and when he has been carefully laid upon a couch, and the vessel has been placed upon the altar before him, all bow down in silent prayer. Suddenly the silence is broken by the voice of the aged Titurel. He is lying in a niche in the rear of the hall, and calls solemnly upon his son to uncover the Holy Grail, and give him a sight of the glorious vessel, which alone can renew his failing strength. ...
— Stories of the Wagner Opera • H. A. Guerber

... too, giving himself up to that spectral contagion. He saw the fat, iridescent bubble with the Hill in it, the House of dreams, the Beach and the Moor and Willow Wood of fancy, and all the grave, strong, gentle line of Kains to whom he had been made bow down in worship. He saw himself taken in, soul and body, by a thin-plated fraud, a cheap trick of mother's words, as before him, his father had been. And the faint exhalations from the moon-patches on the floor showed his face contorted with a still, set ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various

... Egypt, from the house of bondage. Ye shall have no other gods. Ye shall not make to yourselves any graven image, nor any likeness that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. Ye shall not bow down to them nor serve them. I am God, your God. Sanctify ... in six days I have made the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and rested on the seventh day, therefore rest thou also, thou and thy cattle and all that thou hast: I am God, thy God. Honor thy father and thy mother ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883 • Various

... infinite flesh. From the furthest rumors of men and women, the furthest edge of time and space my soul has gathered dust to itself. I carry a temple about with me. If I could do no better, and if there were need, I am my own cathedral. I worship when I breathe. I bow down before the tick of my pulse. I chant to the palm of my hand. The lines in the tips of my fingers could not be duplicated in a million years. Shall any man ask me to prove there are miracles or to put my finger on God? ...
— The Voice of the Machines - An Introduction to the Twentieth Century • Gerald Stanley Lee

... another a heart of gold. One has the strength and endurance of iron, another has means, plenty of silver, each has something of which he can boast; but take care not to make golden images of yourselves and set them up, and expect every one to bow down before them and take you at your own estimation. God will humble you. The feet are of clay, and the proud statues will fall some day. Therefore try to see yourselves as you really are, "Let him that exalteth himself take heed lest he fall." "Be clothed ...
— The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent • S. Baring-Gould

... grapes and oranges and plums and persimmons and scalybarks and fig leaves and 'bout a million other kinds of fruit if you want to, but don't you tech a single apple.' And the Devil temp' him and say he going to put his cap on a pole and everybody got to bow down to it for a idol and if William Tell don't bow down to it he got to shoot a apple for good or evil off 'm his little boy's head. That's all the little boy William Tell and Adam and Eve got, but he ain't going to fall down and worship no gravy image on top a pole, so he ...
— Miss Minerva and William Green Hill • Frances Boyd Calhoun

... At length, Parmenio addressed the king, and asked why he, before whom monarchs and nations trembled, and at whose feet all were ready to fall, should condescend thus to do homage to a man? Alexander replied, 'that he did not bow down to the man, but to the mighty name which was written upon his forehead—to the great God to whom he was consecrated. For that, while he was yet in Macedon, meditating the expedition to Asia, he had been favored with a remarkable dream, in which he had beheld ...
— Holidays at the Grange or A Week's Delight - Games and Stories for Parlor and Fireside • Emily Mayer Higgins

... have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. ...
— Heart of Darkness • Joseph Conrad

... indigo-black tornado clouds, sometimes crested with snow, sometimes softly gorgeous with gold, green, and rose-coloured vapours tinted by the setting sun, sometimes completely swathed in dense cloud so that you cannot see it at all; but when you once know it is there it is all the same, and you bow down ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... nothing for it but to cringe and submit to thickheads like Matifat and Camusot, as actresses bow down to journalists, and we ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... developed youth, standing forth in his undraped manhood for some hard athletic battle. The ideal possess the national life, and effects the entire Greek civilization. Not beauty in innocent weakness, but beauty in resourceful strength—before this beauty men bow down.[*] ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis

... name so dear To all the loving Saviour who revere, Madonna-like be thou in every grace That shall adorn thee in exalted place, And thine the happy privilege to prove The depth, the tenderness of woman's love; So shall the heart that honors thee today Bow down to thee alway. ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard

... arms of his family and the wishes of his country. But if, which Heaven forbid! it hath still been unfortunately determined, that because he has not bent to power and authority, because he would not bow down before the golden calf and worship it, he is to be bound and cast into the furnace,—I do trust in God there is a redeeming spirit in the constitution, which will be seen to walk with the sufferer through the flames, and to preserve ...
— Irish Wit and Humor - Anecdote Biography of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell • Anonymous

... workingman. But I'm no socialist, and I would have ye keep mind of that. I'm yin o' the old Border radicals, and I'm not like to change. I'm for individual liberty and equal rights and chances for all men. I'll no more bow down before a Dagon of a Goavernment official than before the Baal of a feckless Tweedside laird. I've to keep my views to mysel', for thae young lads are all drucken-daft with their wee books about Cawpital and Collectivism and a wheen long senseless ...
— Mr. Standfast • John Buchan

... if a white-haired actor should come back 180 Some midnight to the theatre void and black, And there rehearse his youth's great part Mid thin applauses of the ghosts. So seems it now: ye crowd upon my heart, And I bow down in ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... heart leapt as she heard the word. Was not that the great city he had spoken of, where she would be worshipped for her lovely face, and where great lords and ladies would bow down ...
— The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 • Various

... those heaven-born virtues as in that hitherto distracted region? In those unhappy divisions which exist in Hayti is strikingly exemplified the saying which is written in the sacred oracles, "that when men forsake the true worship and service of the only true God, and bow down to images of silver, and gold, and four-footed beasts and creeping things, and become contentious with each other," says the inspired writer, "in such a state of things trust ye not a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her ...
— Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence - The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of - Slavery to the Present Time • Various

... be a coward as the Aylmer Park carriage, which had been sent to meet her at the station, was drawn up at Sir Anthony Aylmer's door. She had made up her mind that she would not bow down to Lady Aylmer, and yet she was afraid of the woman. As she got out of the carriage, she looked up, expecting to see her in the hall; but Lady Aylmer was too accurately acquainted with the weights and measures of society ...
— The Belton Estate • Anthony Trollope

... go any damn place they please," he growled, and then, as though his own words had re-established his self-respect, he straightened his shoulders and glared at the puzzled and alarmed boy. "I know my trade and do not have to bow down to any man," he declared. He expressed the old tradesman's faith in his craft and the rights it gave the craftsman. "Learn your trade. Don't listen to talk," he said earnestly. "The man who knows his trade is a man. He can tell every one ...
— Poor White • Sherwood Anderson

... for themselves a show, bade felons raise me up; Men bore me on their shoulders, till on a mount they set me; Fiends many fixed me there. Then saw I mankind's Lord Hasten with mickle might, for He would sty[4] upon me. There durst I not 'gainst word of the Lord 35 Bow down or break, when saw I tremble The surface of earth; I might then all My foes have felled, yet fast I stood. The Hero young begirt[5] Himself, Almighty God was He, Strong and stern of mind; He stied on the gallows high, ...
— Elene; Judith; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brunanburh; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon; and the Dream of the Rood • Anonymous

... lifted it on her back. Avarice lent to that broken-down frame unexpected strength of muscles; all the nerves and fibres of the arms, the neck, the shoulders, strained to breaking, bore up under a mass of metal which would have made the most robust Nahasi porter bow down. Her brows bent, like those of an ox when the ploughshare strikes a stone, Thamar staggered out of the palace, knocking up against the walls, walking almost on all-fours, for every now and then she put her hands out to save herself from being crushed under her burden. ...
— The Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 5 - The Romance of a Mummy and Egypt • Theophile Gautier

... sunlight, O men and women! Love and kiss,—bow down and worship each the other! Who can tell of another joy like this? Everlasting knows it not, for only the flavor of death can give it perfection! Save for the foreshadow of midnight, noonday were not beautiful. ...
— Idolatry - A Romance • Julian Hawthorne

... purblind moles, Or toad is found in hollows, and all the swarm Of earth's unsightly creatures; or a huge Corn-heap the weevil plunders, and the ant, Fearful of coming age and penury. Mark too, what time the walnut in the woods With ample bloom shall clothe her, and bow down Her odorous branches, if the fruit prevail, Like store of grain will follow, and there shall come A mighty winnowing-time with mighty heat; But if the shade with wealth of leaves abound, Vainly your threshing-floor will bruise the stalks Rich but ...
— The Georgics • Virgil

... some one had appeared on the scene who did not at once bow down before Betty, and therefore she took the young ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... now installed by acclamation Knight of Canterbury as well as Malta, and King of Kent as well as Jerusalem! It became dangerous then to whisper a syllable of suspicion against his wealth or rank, his wisdom or beauty; and all who would not bow down before this golden image were deemed worthy of no better fate than Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—to be cast into a burning ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth

... Then bow down mind to matter; from brain fiber, will, withdraw; Fall man's heart to cell ascidian, sink man's hand to monkey's paw; And bend the knee to Protoplast in philosophic awe— Both Creator and created, at once work and source of law. ...
— The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 8, August, 1880 • Various

... was declining. If you ask who Louis is, I refer you to the well-known Homoeopathist, Peschier of Geneva, who says, addressing him, "I respect no one more than yourself; the feeling which guides your researches, your labors, and your pen, is so honorable and rare, that I could not but bow down before it; and I own, if there were any allopathist who inspired me with higher veneration, it would be him and not yourself whom ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... favour with everybody will find favour with nobody. And if one has to bow down, let it be to the ...
— Jewish Children • Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich

... on the sea, not on the sea— Thy bark hath long been gone: Oh, may the storm that pours on me, Bow down my head alone! ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... presence and thine every motion, The grateful knowledge of thy sad devotion Melt out the passionate hardness of his grief, And break the flood-gates of the pent-up soul. He shall bow down beneath thy mute control, And take thine hands, and weep, ...
— Among the Millet and Other Poems • Archibald Lampman

... this world, my restless sprite, Turn, turn thy thoughts to Heav'n: There must thou soon direct thy night, If errors are forgiven. To bigots and to sects unknown. Bow down beneath the Almighty's throne;— To him address thy trembling prayer; He, who is merciful and just, Will not reject a child of dust, Although his meanest care. Father of Light, to thee I call, My soul is dark within; Thou, who canst mark the sparrow ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.) - With his Letters and Journals. • Thomas Moore

... thine heart." How could anyone delight in the Caucasian God, as the majority of Caucasians conceive of Him? As a matter of fact, how many Caucasians themselves, however devout, however orthodox, attempt to delight, or pretend to delight, in the God to whom on occasions they bow down? Delight is a strong word, and a lovely one; but used of the Caucasian and his Deity it is not ...
— The Conquest of Fear • Basil King

... to reverence our tormentor is repulsive and despicable, and since we refuse to allow man to tyrannize over man, what degradation it is for the human race to cringe and bow down unconditionally to the imagination in ...
— Tyranny of God • Joseph Lewis

... Shakspere, as with Victor Hugo, it is difficult for our vision to penetrate the glow irradiating the supreme heights of accomplishment. Like Balzac, like Shakspere again, he has revealed to us a territory so vast, that while we bow down before the sun westering athwart distant Andes, the gold of sunrise is already flashing behind us, upon ...
— Life of Robert Browning • William Sharp

... bow down before you," said the chief, kneeling down and touching the ground with his forehead three times. "But," he added, as he rose to his feet, "you have not yet proved that we are brothers. Where are your tattoo-marks? ...
— Captain Jinks, Hero • Ernest Crosby

... best friends? Why should I pretend to say that this appears to be the raggedest, the meanest, the worst condition of humanity, when the papers are constantly lauding British philanthropy, and holding it up as a great example, which we must "bow down and worship?" For my own part, although the pleasant fiction of seeing Cuffee clothed, educated, and Christianized, seemed to be somewhat obscured in this glimpse of his real condition, yet I hope he will do well under his new owners; at the very least, ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens

... exist, and that charms have a powerful influence, as likewise that dreams signify something, but in many of these respects they really do not differ materially from their white brethren of more civilised countries. The ignorant people of many European nations believe in charms. They bow down before statues, certainly more attractive in appearance than the African's fetish god, but still things of stone. The people we met were certainly superstitious in the highest degree, but they nearly all differed in their ideas, as did even the people of the same ...
— The Two Supercargoes - Adventures in Savage Africa • W.H.G. Kingston

... will their divergence cease, and they will enter upon a new path of enjoyment, prosperity, and permanence. The world at present pays them an annual bribe of some $65,000,000 to learn none of these lessons. Their material interest teaches them to bow down to the shrine of King Cotton. Here, then, lies the remedy with the disease. The prosperity of the country in general, and of the South in particular, demands that the reign of King Cotton should cease,—that ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 42, April, 1861 • Various

... father kissed him and laid his hand upon him and gave to Jacob his blessing. The old father then spoke in prophetic phrase, evidently under the direction of the Lord, saying unto his son Jacob: "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be ...
— The Harp of God • J. F. Rutherford

... paraded in turn; the fate of each the result of race-hatred, and a race-avidity to possess the land. And a great fear came over me that the girl leaning against the walnut, the mass of blue-black hair seeming to bow down the proud head, was destined to be added to the purchase-price ...
— A Virginia Scout • Hugh Pendexter

... us;—even here in Aidenn I shudder while I speak. Let me be brief—brief as the ruin that overwhelmed. For a moment there was a wild lurid light alone, visiting and penetrating all things. Then—let us bow down, Charmion, before the excessive majesty of the great God!—then, there came a shouting and pervading sound, as if from the mouth itself of HIM; while the whole incumbent mass of ether in which we existed, burst at once ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... afraid of anything, dear, or you will risk all. Follow my lead; I will answer for your conduct. Surely, if Naaman, in the midst of idolaters, was permitted to bow down in the house of Rimmon, to save his place at court, you may blamelessly bow down to save your life in a Buddhist temple. Now, no more casuistry, but do as I tell you! 'Aum, mani, padme, hum,' again! Once more ...
— Hilda Wade - A Woman With Tenacity Of Purpose • Grant Allen

... had been seen for ages. A less formidable confederacy had in a week conquered, all the provinces of Venice, when Venice was at the height, of power, wealth, and glory. A less formidable confederacy had compelled Lewis the Fourteenth to bow down his haughty head to the very earth. A less formidable confederacy has, within our own memory, subjugated a still mightier empire, and abused a still prouder name. Such odds had never been heard of in war. The people whom Frederic ruled were not five millions. The ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... exhortation, the burden of which might be shortly translated:—'Pray earnestly, and always, to Mary our mother, for all souls in purgatory; confess your sins unto us your high priests; give, give to the Church and to the poor, strive to lead better lives, look forward ever to the end; and bow down, oh! bow down, before the golden images [manufactured for us in the next street] which our Holy Mother the Church ...
— Normandy Picturesque • Henry Blackburn

... biscuits and soda-water. As neither of these articles had been provided, he consented to regale himself with a single duck's tongue. In short, he behaved so singularly, and gave himself so many airs, that everybody present, from the Emperor to the cook, was ready to bow down ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various

... proves that reason is rooted and grounded within one, and that, to borrow the language of Democritus, one is accustomed to draw one's delights from oneself. And just as farmers behold with greater pleasure those ears of corn which bend and bow down to the ground, while they look upon those that from their lightness stand straight upright as empty pretenders, so also among those young men who wish to be philosophers those that are most empty and without any solidity show the greatest amount of assurance in their ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch

... was who wore an air of superiority, ,grave and composed, yet decided, to which they all appeared to bow down with willing subserviency, though the distinction was only demonstrated by an air of profound respect whenever they approached or passed him, for discourse held they none. One morning, when I observed him seated at a greater distance than usual from his overseers, during his hour of release, ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay

... laughs alike at loss of fortune, loss of friends, loss of character. The deeds and thoughts of men are tor him equally indifferent. He does not mingle in their paths of callous bustle, or hold himself responsible to the airy impostures before which they bow down. He is a mariner who, on the sea of life, keeps his gaze fixedly on a single star; and if that do not shine, he lets go the rudder, and glories when his barque ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli

... Eastern foe, No single instance this; Miltiades and Marathon recall, See, with his patriot few, Leonidas Closing, Thermopylae, thy bloody pass! Like them to dare and do, to God let all With heart and knee bow down, Who for our arms and age has ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch

... specimen you are!" he said, in a tone of vast contempt. "But you're about what I'd expect folks like that friend of th' Professor's, th' Cacique, t' worship. It takes a low sort of a heathen, even in his blindness, t' bow down to a stone like you—with your twisted head, an' your stubby legs, an' your little fryin'-pan over your stomach. Why, where I come from they wouldn't have you even for a stone settee in a park. No, you're not fit even t' sit on—unless, maybe, it's on th' flat top of your ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier

... have dreamed yet a dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the ...
— Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature • Various

... the event is prefigured or foretold. After the offices are gone through, the cross is placed on the ground, supported by a cushion, and all the faithful, from the highest personages of the state down to the meanest subject, bow down before it, kiss it, and leave some piece of money on a plate placed by its side. In the royal chapel of the palace are placed, close to the cross on this occasion, the files of the proceedings against criminals who have been condemned ...
— Roman Catholicism in Spain • Anonymous

... who rattled the standard. "When you say, dearest, that we don't know what to 'do' with Aggie's cleverness, do you quite allow for the way we bow down before it and worship it? I don't quite see what else we—in here—can do with it, even though we HAVE gathered that, just over there, Petherton's finding for it a different application. We can only each in our way do our best. Don't therefore succumb, Jane, ...
— The Awkward Age • Henry James

... England," said Lucius, after pausing for a while. "Sir Peregrine is a man of family, and a baronet; of course all the world, the world of Hamworth that is, should bow down at his feet. And I too must worship the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Fashion, ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... been dependent upon what our Anglo-Saxon friends have thought of us and have blindly worshipped the hand-picked leaders our Anglo-Saxon godfathers have set up for us, to bow down to. The time has now arrived for us to mold the opinion of our Anglo-Saxon friends by what we think of ourselves, and to select and follow our own leaders. The time has now arrived for us to take a hand ...
— Alexander Crummell: An Apostle of Negro Culture - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 20 • William H. Ferris

... "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for a house of defence to save me."—(Ps. xxxi. 1, 2.) "Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry; give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips."—(Ps. xvii. 1.) The ...
— Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel • John Yeardley

... her glance upon him still; but, look as steadfast as she would, her haughty nostrils dilated, and her breath came somewhat deeper, and her lip would slightly curl, as he described that in his patron to which they must all bow down. He saw it; and though his expression did not change, she ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... recognized in Elmendorf the evil genius of the family, and implored Mart to have no more to do with him, whereat Mart laughed wildly. "Just you wait a bit, missy," he declaimed. "The day is coming when capitalists and corporations will bow down to him as they have to the Goulds and Vanderbilts in the past. I tell you, in less than two months, if they don't come to our terms, if they refuse to listen to our dictation not one wheel will turn from ...
— A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike • Charles King

... You must bow down before mediocrity, frigidly polite mediocrity which you despise—and obey. On more mature reflection, I have discovered the reasons of these glaring inconsistencies. Mediocrity is never out of fashion, it is the daily wear of society; genius and eccentricity ...
— The Country Doctor • Honore de Balzac

... they are God's people, nevertheless they shall not altogether go unpunished, for if they sow to the flesh they must of the flesh reap corruption. In Deuteronomy the fifth chapter and the ninth verse, we read, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." It is a solemn fact that the sins of the fathers descend upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. ...
— And Judas Iscariot - Together with other evangelistic addresses • J. Wilbur Chapman

... You know, my dear lady, I don't know what to do. One feels on the one hand, that here is a cloud of witnesses, great men, sainted men, subtle men, figures permanently historical, before whom one can do nothing but bow down in the utmost humility, here is a great instrument and organization—what would the world be without the witness of the church?—and on the other hand here are our masses out of hand and hostile, our industrial leaders equally hostile; there is a failure to grip, and ...
— Soul of a Bishop • H. G. Wells

... tempests, it gives way To elemental fury, howls and roars At all its rocky barriers, in wild lust Of ruin drinks the blood of living things, And strews its wrecks o'er leagues of desolate shore, - Always it is the sea, and men bow down Before its vast ...
— Pike County Ballads and Other Poems • John Hay

... grace by Christ, and not of works by men; yet conscience, reason, and the law of nature, not being as yet subdued by the power and glory of grace unto the obedience of Christ, will rise up in rebellion against this doctrine, and will over-rule and bow down the soul again to the law and ...
— The Pharisee And The Publican • John Bunyan

... thing, oh Tansillo! for its many virtues and perfections, and it behoves human genius to seek, accept, nourish, and preserve a love like that; but one should take great care not to bow down or become enslaved to an object unworthy and base, lest we become sharers of the baseness and unworthiness of the same: appositely ...
— The Heroic Enthusiasts,(1 of 2) (Gli Eroici Furori) - An Ethical Poem • Giordano Bruno

... Christian country, the rite of coronation, or crowning of a king, was in such words as these: 'May the almighty Lord give thee, O king, from the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn and wine and oil! Be thou the lord of thy brothers, and let the sons of thy mother bow down before thee. Let the people serve thee and the tribes adore thee. May the Almighty bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, and the mountains and the valleys with the blessings of the deep below, with the blessings of grapes and apples! Bless, O Lord, ...
— Among the Trees at Elmridge • Ella Rodman Church

... laughing, well-bred individual who would listen to stale jokes and impudent ribaldry. Of Queen Charlotte she used to speak with the utmost disrespect, attributing to her a love of domination and a hatred of every one who would not bow down before any idol that she chose to set up; and as being envious of the Princess Caroline and her daughter the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and jealous of their acquiring too much influence over the Prince of Wales. In short, Mary Anne Clarke had ...
— Reminiscences of Captain Gronow • Rees Howell Gronow

... Scots and English if they desert us in our hour of need. Are they not our own kith and kin? But whether they aid us, or whether they desert us, we will stand firm, and be true to ourselves. Our cause is good, and we are bound to win, as we won before. Only stand firm, shoulder to shoulder. Shall we bow down to Popery? No, by the God that made us, No. Shall we truckle to Rome, shall we become slaves to Popish knaves, shall we become subservient to priestcraft and lying and roguery and trickery? Never shall it be said of us. We claim ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... that he should have such thoughts, and reproached him saying, "Shall I and thy brethren indeed come and bow down ourselves to thee to the ...
— Child's Story of the Bible • Mary A. Lathbury

... English court of law, on suspicion of having committed a theft or a murder, do not speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Would an English sailor, if brought before a dark-skinned judge, who spoke English with a strange accent, bow down before him and confess at once any misdeed that he may have committed; and would all his mates rush forward and eagerly bear witness against him, when he had got himself ...
— India: What can it teach us? - A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge • F. Max Mueller

... the same thing. A nihilist is a man who does not bow down before any authority, who does not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that ...
— Fathers and Children • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

... him, my dear fellow?" said Choate. "So do I. I bow down to him as the wild Indian does before his wooden idol. I know he's ugly; but I bow to ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar

... The garden is full of flowers All dancing round and round. John-flowers, Mary-flowers, Polly-flowers, Cauli-flowers, They dance round and round And they bow down and ...
— Poems By a Little Girl • Hilda Conkling

... west (as in rural America anywhere), the three types of great men in the peoples' eyes are the soldier, the politician and the minister. The whole people appear to revere the great soldier, the men admire the successful politician, and the women bow down before the ...
— A Spoil of Office - A Story of the Modern West • Hamlin Garland

... all ready. We must march up before the shrine, and lay our sacrifices at the feet of the idol, and bow down before it." ...
— Cricket at the Seashore • Elizabeth Westyn Timlow

... father of love, In the distant heaven! Had I but the power, The tongues of the angels above, Thy praise I should sing every hour; I cannot, for I am of little worth, I can only bow down before you to the earth— O thanks, thou unspeakable! Glory and praise For all I can here ...
— Early Plays - Catiline, The Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans • Henrik Ibsen



Words linked to "Bow down" :   lie, conge, gesture, prostrate, lie down, gesticulate, motion, congee



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