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Kowtow originated as a noun referring to the act of kneeling and touching one's head to the ground as a salute or act of worship to a revered authority. In traditional China this ritual was performed by commoners making requests to the local magistrate, by the emperor to the shrine of Confucius, or by foreign representatives appearing before the emperor to establish trade relations. (In the late 18th century, some Western nations resisted performing the ritual, which acknowledged the Chinese emperor as the "son of heaven.") The word kowtow derives from Chinese koutou, formed by combining the verb kou ("to knock") with the noun tou ("head").
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Examples of kowtow in a Sentence
ABC News, 23 June 2024
Franklin could have kowtowed to this member and attempted to win him over with flattery.
—Eric Weiner, TIME, 11 June 2024
The charismatic political newcomer, an Israeli immigrant with roots in Ethiopia, accused her Democratic rival of kowtowing to the progressive squad and looking the other way from the surge of undocumented immigrants crossing from Mexico.
—Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 1 Feb. 2024
In New York, some students and faculty members complained that university leaders had largely kowtowed to a Congress whose insistent questioning helped fuel the recent resignations by the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
—Alan Blinder, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2024
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“Kowtow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kowtow. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.
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