Kneels

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /niːlz/

Definitions

1. To make contact with the ground using one or both knees, generally indicating respect or submission in a physical posture
2. The action of positioning oneself on the knees, which may symbolize devotion, humility, or obedience in various contexts
3. The act of lowering oneself onto the knees often conveys a gesture of reverence, submission, or humility in differing situations

Etymology: "Kneels" is the third-person singular present of "kneel", so the root is the verb "kneel", which comes from Old English "cnēowlian", a verb built from "cnēow", the word for knee. The Old English form carried the body part into the verb: to kneel was, literally, to act on one's knees. It passed into Middle English as "knelen", and the same pattern appears across the Germanic languages, where Dutch "knielen", Danish "knæle" and German dialect forms all mean the same thing. The Old English verb itself was formed with the suffix "-lian", which turned a noun into a verb, so "cnēowlian" amounts to "to knee", with the sense of bending onto the knee. English kept the body-part root and simply reshaped the verb over the centuries, which is why "kneel" still sounds like "knee" in its spelling and its basic meaning.

Synonyms: bends, squats, stoops

Antonyms: stands, rises, straightens