kowtow

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Smaller domestic military budgets also reduce the need for companies to kowtow to politicians by maintaining unprofitable operations in their districts or supporting civilian projects.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026

The need to kowtow seems to have scarred Torres.

From New York Times • Feb. 29, 2024

He’s an American native and a fiercely secular one at that, but the controversy awakens something in him, a stubborn individualism and a refusal to kowtow to ignorance.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 5, 2021

And she was, indeed, defined by a steely independent streak that did not kowtow to outsiders, whether established civil rights figures or the leader of the free world.

From Washington Post • Jul. 16, 2021

Or would Miss Love do like Mama and kowtow to Loma for the sake of peace in the family?

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns