How to Use kneel in a Sentence

kneel

verb
  • He was kneeling in front of the altar and praying.
  • She was kneeling on the floor beside her child.
  • Dreher knelt in one of the pews and prayed.
    — Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Straus knelt down and let Raz kiss her face.
    — Holden Seidlitz, New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Each night the boys would kneel in the dark and pray for help.
    — Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR, 18 June 2026
  • Khaled knelt, called his son’s name, and leaned in for a kiss.
    — Mosab Abu Toha, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025
  • That's the easy part, since the tall camels have been taught to kneel.
    — Richard Mason, Arkansas Online, 27 Sep. 2020
  • Combs kneeled down on the ground, put his hands on his chair and prayed.
    — Katrina Kaufman, CBS News, 2 July 2025
  • Prescott kneeled three times after that.
    — CBS News, 28 Nov. 2025
  • In our room, Raúl knelt and helped make our beds for us.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Red Beard knelt next to me, and light shone from his knees.
    — Will MacKin, New Yorker, 28 June 2026
  • Bieber bare-legged and kneeling with a lip balm in her hand.
    — Lucy Feldman, Time, 6 May 2026
  • The man then kneels down and folds his hands in front of himself.
    — David Matthews, New York Daily News, 23 Apr. 2025
  • When night fell, the husband and wife knelt on their clay floor.
    — Erika Page, Christian Science Monitor, 8 Apr. 2025
  • Instead, a cop climbed on stage, knelt, and kissed the flag.
    — Nick Spicer, NPR, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Many in the crowd knelt or bowed their heads, eyes closed, praying.
    — Lauren Caruba, San Antonio Express-News, 4 May 2018
  • Now when the auger got stuck, one of us had to kneel down and dig the rock out.
    — Ryan D'agostino, Popular Mechanics, 24 Oct. 2020
  • There she was forced to kneel down for her hair to be cut and her body sprayed red.
    — Rachael Bunyan, Time, 7 Nov. 2019
  • You were made to kneel down on your knees and keep your back straight for four or five hours.
    — Jeff Truesdell, PEOPLE.com, 22 June 2018
  • Inside the prison, they were forced to kneel as their heads were shaved by guards.
    — Nidia Cavazos, CBS News, 23 May 2025
  • Cap knelt beside him and checked his vital signs.
    — Paige Williams, New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2026
  • The man kneeled on the ground while propping up a ring box on the stage and grinned.
    — William Earl, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
  • The kneeling uncle looked around with his palms up to the sky.
    — Tiphanie Yanique, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2019
  • He was thrown to the ground and handcuffed; an agent kneeled on the back of his neck.
    — Oriana Van Praag, New Yorker, 28 May 2025
  • They were made to kneel on the ground in the prison yard, the crowns of their heads on the ground.
    — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2020
  • The man knelt at the edge of the minefield and unsheathed his knife.
    — Amir Ahmadi Arian, The Dial, 10 June 2025
  • Not every player in the league will kneel, no, but many will.
    — Gregg Doyel, The Indianapolis Star, 11 Sep. 2020
  • Grasso knelt off to the side, praying.
    — Kyle Newman, Denver Post, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Our teachers will, if need be, even kneel and pray alongside you.
    — Stephen Tave, Fortune, 5 Nov. 2025
  • My husband and the doula knelt next to me and discussed what to do next.
    — Sophia Solano, Washington Post, 13 May 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kneel.' 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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