genuflection

Or is something else happening; is the press manifesting an unadmitted genuflection to raw power, exercised arbitrarily, out of calculated self-preservation?

At earlier hearings, university presidents opted for strategies of conciliatory genuflection or drab, lawyerly answers.

“It’s only a movie, and … a much less impressive one than all the accompanying genuflection would have you believe.”

Still, they’ve all grown too used to each other to engage in much genuflection: When you treat an awards campaign like a full-time job, the other contenders might as well be your co-workers.

“It’s gracious. It makes a genuflection in the direction of Biden and America without actually giving anything away.”