knee-crooking en · ADJ
Etymology
Compare bend the knee.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Obsequious; submissive.
With his usual dose of commonsense he recognized that nothing could really change the status quo, and all that a knee-crooking knave might do in protest was to sneak a line or two into his verse simply to let off steam […]
2009, Terence Barnett Magness, The Brood of Time, page 378:The Norman said nothing, but he did what the bystanders considered rather surprising in a knee-crooking Frenchman. Neither bending his body nor doffing his helmet, he folded his arms across his breast and looked straight into the Lucky One's eyes.
2022, Ottilie A. Liljencrantz, The Thrall of Leif the Lucky: A Story of Viking Days: