Fig. to be very humble and subservient. Please don't bow and scrape. We are all equal here.The salesclerk came in, bowing and scraping, and asked if he could help us.
to try too hard to please someone in a position of authority (often in continuous tenses) It's embarrassing to see staff bowing and scraping to the new Prime Minister.
Behave obsequiously or too deferentially, as in In this fashionable store, the salespersons virtually bow and scrape before customers. This term alludes to the old-fashioned custom of bowing so deeply that one's foot draws back and scrapes the ground. A cliché for a century or more, it may be dying out. [Mid-1600s]