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
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
Tributary states sent semi-regular missions to the Chinese imperial court to acknowledge the superiority of the Chinese emperor and perform rituals of submission, known as the kowtow.
From Salon • Feb. 13, 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
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Vocabulary lists containing kowtow
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