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on bended knee

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on bended knee

kneeling, as in supplication. (The verb form is obsolescent and occurs now only in this phrase.) Do you expect me to come to you on bended knee and ask you for forgiveness? The suitors came on bended knee and begged the attention of the princess.

See also: bended, knee, on

on bended knee

like a servant The governors have to ask on bended knee for more money from Washington to pay for increased security.

See also: bended, knee, on

on bended knee/knees

  (humorous)

if you ask for something on bended knee, you ask very politely or with a lot of emotion for something that you want very much I had to go down on bended knee and beg my Dad to let me have the party. He begged me on bended knee to marry him.

See also: bended, knee, on

on bended knee

Humbly, pleading, as in They're desperate for funds; they're asking for contributions on bended knee. This expression alludes to a traditional attitude of supplication. Bended, the past tense of bend, survives only in this idiom, elsewhere having been replaced by bent. [Mid-1600s]

See also: bended, knee, on

on bended knee

On one's knee or knees, as in supplication or submission.

See also: bended, knee, on