on one's knees
- idiom
:
de rodillas
- Your devotees are on their knees To implore you
She gets down on one knee and she says, Chris, look me in the eyes.
- She gets down on one knee and she says, Chris, look me in the eyes.
Examples
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And we'll see who's left standing, and who is on their knees.
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But it was hard to be confident when one was on one's knees.
Fiction book (1991) -
- Get on your knees!
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Get down on your knees, would you, man?
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Now I want you to get on your knees and pray.
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Drop on your knees
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Get on your knees.
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But perhaps more of us could recognize that raising a child well is inseparable from showing him, as best we can, what it means to fall on one's knees and cry out to the God who loves children.
Blog text (13) -
There's something about being on one's knees amid a day's carnage of shorn hair that sets a man to pondering.
Fiction book (1996) -
During the ceremony, the couple got down on one's knees to exchange vows.
Synonyms
9
2.0
Being on your knees as a sign of respect or worship
3
7.9
To show respect and learn from someone seen as a teacher
3
6.1
A person who admires someone and does what they want
Antonyms
How Low
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal meaning 'in a kneeling position' is directly and compositionally derived from 'on' + 'one's' + 'knee(s)', so a learner who knows those words will readily infer it. The figurative sense of submission or humility is a natural, cross-linguistically common extension of kneeling and therefore remains predictable rather than arbitrary for a B1 learner.
Etymology
The idiom on one's knees comes from the simple act of being down on your knees to beg or pray, a strong picture of someone showing they are humble or asking for help. That's why the phrase now means 'in a state of submission' or, by the image of someone worn out and still on their knees, 'very weak'.