Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Showing an excessively deferential manner: Describes behavior that is overly respectful, submissive, or polite, often to the point of seeming insincere or exaggerated.

2. Noun:

   • Managing the bow in playing a stringed instrument: The technique, style, or act of using a bow to play a violin, cello, or similar instrument.
   • Bending the head or body or knee as a sign of reverence or submission or shame or greeting: The physical act of bowing, which is a gesture involving a forward inclination of the upper body, head, or knee to express respect, obedience, apology, or a formal greeting.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • His bowing manner towards the boss made his colleagues uncomfortable.
  • She offered a bowing apology, her voice filled with excessive deference.

• Noun (Musical Technique):

  • The cellist's smooth bowing produced a beautiful, sustained tone.
  • Good bowing is essential for controlling the volume and expression of the music.

• Noun (Gesture):

  • The traditional greeting involves a deep bowing from the waist.
  • He performed a bowing of his head in silent acknowledgment of his mistake.

Advanced Usage

• "In a bowing scrape": An idiom describing an excessively humble or servile bow, often combined with a scraping motion of the foot. It implies exaggerated, perhaps obsequious, respect.
  • The butler greeted the duke with a bowing scrape.

Variants and Related Words

• Bow (verb/noun): The root word. As a verb: to perform the act of bowing. As a noun: the gesture itself or the tool for playing a stringed instrument.

  • The actors will bow at the end of the performance.
  • He tightened the hair on his violin bow.

• Bowed (adjective): Bent or curved; can describe posture (e.g., a bowed head) or an object's shape.

  • She sat with bowed head, lost in thought.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Deferential, obsequious, servile, fawning, submissive.
• Noun (Gesture): Obeisance, curtsy (specifically for women), genuflection (bending the knee, often in worship).

Related Phrases

• Bowing out: Withdrawing or resigning from a position or activity. (Note: This is a phrasal verb based on "bow," not directly on "bowing").
  • After the scandal, the minister is bowing out of politics.

Related Idioms

• Bowing and scraping: Behaving in an excessively deferential and servile way.
  • I'm tired of all the bowing and scraping you have to do in that corporate culture.

Adjective

1. showing an excessively deferential manner

Noun

1. managing the bow in playing a stringed instrument
   • the violinist's bowing was excellent
2. bending the head or body or knee as a sign of reverence or submission or shame or greeting