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KNEELING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Supporting yourself on your knees
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("kneeling" is a kind of...):
motility; motion; move; movement (a change of position that does not entail a change of location)
Derivation:
kneel (rest one's weight on one's knees)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb kneel
Context examples:
Kneeling or leaning your elbows on a hard surface for a long time can make bursitis start.
(Bursitis, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)
Thence a narrow passage led into the hall: in crossing it, I perceived my sandal was loose; I stopped to tie it, kneeling down for that purpose on the mat at the foot of the staircase.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
For coming through the narrows, we had to lie very near the southern point, and there we saw all three of them kneeling together on a spit of sand, with their arms raised in supplication.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
And all the time I must help up the man and woman. Sometimes they rise to their knees and fall forward, maybe four or five times before they can get to their feet again and stagger two or three steps and fall. But always do they fall forward. Standing or kneeling, always do they fall forward, gaining on the trail each time by the length of their bodies.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Before the house-maid had lit their fire the next day, or the sun gained any power over a cold, gloomy morning in January, Marianne, only half dressed, was kneeling against one of the window-seats for the sake of all the little light she could command from it, and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
If that were true the murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"And I!" said Lord Godalming, each of them in turn kneeling to her to take the oath. I followed, myself.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
At the foot of the bed, half sitting, half kneeling, his face buried in the clothes, was a young man, whose frame was racked by his sobs.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Kneeling at the foot of the tower, he sang a serenade in melting tones.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Whilst the business of the fixing of the stakes and the fastening of the ropes was going forward, I from my place of vantage could hear the talk of the crowd behind me, the front two rows of which were lying upon the grass, the next two kneeling, and the others standing in serried ranks all up the side of the gently sloping hill, so that each line could just see over the shoulders of that which was in front.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
