How to Use genuflect in a Sentence

genuflect

verb
  • They genuflected before the altar in the church.
  • But the time to just nod your head and genuflect to Belichick has passed.
    — Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2023
  • The fans didn’t show, the politicians didn’t genuflect and the sponsors didn’t pay.
    — Brian Straus, SI.com, 18 Oct. 2017
  • The relentless pace of war allows no time to grieve or genuflect.
    — Justin Barrasso, SI.com, 2 Apr. 2018
  • Or partner with an expert, learn from them and be willing to genuflect to them as needed.
    — Dr. Eric George, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Good for the Cavs refusing to genuflect at the alter of the sweep.
    — cleveland.com, 10 June 2017
  • One thing even more awful, though, over time, is trying to share a life with someone who still genuflects to someone else.
    — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 24 Feb. 2023
  • Texas is changing, in ways that Cornyn is wise to genuflect toward, and this election has the look of a blue wave.
    — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2020
  • And the rest of the NBA is supposed to genuflect and hand them the title?
    — Terry Pluto, cleveland.com, 1 June 2017
  • Genuflecting in the face of the aristocracy strikes me as a prelude to something darker.
    — Karen D'souza, The Mercury News, 16 May 2017
  • Theaters are under no obligation to genuflect to the calendar, of course.
    — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 17 Feb. 2026
  • The sisters genuflect before an ornate altar and then take a seat in their individual choir stalls.
    — Matthew Vann, NBC News, 23 Dec. 2017
  • Greta is so flummoxed by this gorgeous creature standing before her that she's tempted to genuflect and kiss her hand instead of shaking it.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Tillery fancies himself a kingmaker and promises a get-out-the-vote effort to genuflecting politicos.
    — Jason Williams, Cincinnati.com, 12 June 2019
  • In a photo from the event, Rippon is seen genuflecting before the Drag Race host during the ball.
    — Stephen Daw, Billboard, 25 Apr. 2018
  • Generation Next isn’t sitting around the garage, smitten by tales of their elders and genuflecting at the sight of their firesuits.
    — George Diaz, OrlandoSentinel.com, 5 June 2017
  • After the match, Nakamura kneeled as if to genuflect before the champ, but then turned heel, hitting Styles with a low blow and leaving him laying.
    — Jay Reddick, OrlandoSentinel.com, 9 Apr. 2018
  • Paul, after genuflecting before his libertarian namesake, got some digs in, too.
    — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 29 Mar. 2023
  • The Brit media are notorious for genuflecting at the feet of any villain with a fast quote and a snare sample, but Blur bears out the grandiose claims made on its behalf.
    — Jonathan Bernstein, SPIN, 7 June 2023
  • Bourdain used to genuflect like a fanboy before innovative chefs such as Éric Ripert, of Le Bernardin.
    — Adam Davidson, The New Yorker, 13 Feb. 2017
  • Cronin neither approached the property like a dutiful steward, nor as a fanboy genuflecting before a sacred horror text.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 14 Apr. 2026
  • These considerations are paying off as handsomely as genuflecting to government power used to (and often still does).
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
  • For decades, the Republican Party has genuflected at the altar of small government.
    — Jennifer Rubin, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Feb. 2018
  • Thus, as the bear market leads to bigger and bigger losses, and a bottom nears, erstwhile believers in buying and holding start genuflecting at the altar of market timing.
    — Mark Hulbert, WSJ, 6 Aug. 2017
  • Time passes, both jobs remain unfilled and heretofore loyal supporters who generally genuflect before the man who walks to work past his own statue start to wonder what’s taking so long.
    — al, 9 Feb. 2023
  • To pressure educators into genuflecting for even a single parent’s objection to a lesson.
    — Roy S. Johnson | [email protected], al, 20 Feb. 2023
  • The film sees itself through eyes all its own, and depicts same-sex intimacy without genuflecting to the stigmas that have set the parameters for representations of queerness in the past.
    — John Paul Brammer, NBC News, 9 May 2017
  • These days, anyone who still genuflects at the altar of cinema amid our putative streaming-service renaissance runs the risk of being labeled hopelessly retrograde.
    — Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2019
  • The desire to have it both ways—to genuflect to agency while casting structure as the man behind the curtain—extends to the way Beckert plays with the schemes of historical continuity and rupture.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Mead suggests that the interminable peace process, in which everyone genuflects to an ever-receding mirage of concord, has been a hard-nosed strategic choice, useful to virtually all parties to the conflict.
    — Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'genuflect.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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