What's the difference between genuflect and grovel?

Genuflect


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To bend the knee, as in worship.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Indeed, UK Sport, now the subject of so much ministerial genuflection, was among the agencies earmarked for Francis Maude's "bonfire of the quangos" less than two years ago.
  • (2) Never mind that it muddies the debate (the Le Pen dynasty and the millionaire Nigel Farage somehow turn out to be the real victims in all this) and trivialises the very people to whom the quack is pretending to genuflect.
  • (3) Why bow your head to people who will simply bank the genuflection, and then turn on the head of a dime.
  • (4) Much as they are obliged to set aside a certain number of viewing hours for consideration of matters that pass for religious (to which the British are equally indifferent) they must genuflect before the altar of culture.
  • (5) Congregations genuflect, Black robes brag gilt epaulettes, Freedom's phantom's gone to heaven, Gay Pride's chained and in detention.
  • (6) How long before News Corp’s famous summer party is revived as a compulsory opportunity for political genuflection?
  • (7) There is nothing in our constitution that enjoins us to respect the head of state, or to genuflect before him.
  • (8) That’s why it was still up last week: not because of heritage (because that’s bunk), but because genuflecting to racists is good politics.
  • (9) There was Tony, on the banks of the river Jordan, satin robes rippling in the breeze, genuflecting to the most powerful media oligarch on the planet.
  • (10) Why genuinely powerful people genuflect to people who won't respect them for genuflecting?
  • (11) But private genuflection is hardly appropriate for a job at the BBC , which we feel we own because we're all obliged to pay for it.
  • (12) Only one sentence genuflected towards the moral good of the rich and able paying a “fair” share towards our “public services and safety nets”: the real enemy of morality was the principle of taxation itself.
  • (13) It starts out as a religious hymn, then mutates into something Sex Pistols-esque, the women kneeling, genuflecting, crossing themselves, jumping up and down and, after a few seconds, being intercepted by security guards and led away.
  • (14) Received wisdom still holds that you can’t run for president as a Republican without genuflecting to the evangelical base.
  • (15) Watching footage of the event, it is clear which way the deference is flowing: while the Beatles are relaxed and joshing, Wilson seems tense and genuflective.
  • (16) Any hope that Bowie the icon might induce genuflection among the referendum don't-knows was instantly dashed on Twitter.
  • (17) Since then, capturing the "centre ground" has often meant genuflecting to an incorrigibly reactionary "middle".
  • (18) He genuflected to the concept of moderation, refrained from naming any country that Iran considered averse to its interests, and the word "enemy" was missing altogether.
  • (19) Times Square : where jingoists go to cheer the deaths of terrorists, tourists go to genuflect at the might of American advertising and where, last night, an even broader demographic turned out to watch the 66th Tony awards, aka "Broadway's big night" or, as host Neil Patrick Harris termed it, "50 shades of gay" .
  • (20) So why do so many people still genuflect in its direction?

Grovel


Definition:

  • (adv.) To creep on the earth, or with the face to the ground; to lie prone, or move uneasily with the body prostrate on the earth; to lie fiat on one's belly, expressive of abjectness; to crawl.
  • (adv.) To tend toward, or delight in, what is sensual or base; to be low, abject, or mean.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Lord Young , the prime minister's enterprise adviser, was forced to issue a grovelling apology last night after he claimed most Britons "had never had it so good during this so called recession".
  • (2) And instead of celebrating bumper peak viewing figures of more than 20m for the England match, ITV was instead having to issue a grovelling apology.
  • (3) If they want me to get down and grovel on the floor; no, never.
  • (4) I was showing a person groveling to take back a statement made long ago!
  • (5) This week his previous grovelling before communist China over steel tariffs has returned to haunt him.
  • (6) From 1969 to 1985 he also wrote the Grovel gossip column in Private Eye, whose then editor, Richard Ingrams, dubbed him the Greatest Living Englishman despite, or because of, more writs.
  • (7) It didn't happen and, as Simon Jenkins put it , "Cameron could hardly have grovelled lower.
  • (8) "With her blonde hair and her ability to ask the most grovelling questions, she is rapidly becoming the female Fabricant – or at least Fabricant Mark I, before he stopped crawling and became an elder statesman."
  • (9) There's even a slot called Friday Boss, in which the programme's usual rules of engagement are set aside and its reporters grovel before the corporate idol.
  • (10) Bashir immediately erupted in a ball of fiery rage, cutting Hardin off, refusing to let him speak, repeatedly demanding an apology for this grievous assault on the integrity of a military man, and then – when Hardin failed sufficiently to grovel for the crime of speaking ill of Gen Dempsey – Bashir kicked Hardin off the show by abruptly ending the interview.
  • (11) The Countess of Wessex, 2001 Sophie Wessex reportedly had to write grovelling apologies to Prince Charles, Tony Blair and William Hague after Mahmood lured her into making highly embarrassing comments about them.
  • (12) Some MPs are saying the better solution would be to fine them, rather than to require them to grovel in front of the highest court in the land.
  • (13) Organisers of a conference celebrating the best and brightest businesspeople in the north of England have issued a grovelling apology over lack of female representation.
  • (14) HSBC has made mistakes in the past, and for them I am very sorry,” his successor Douglas Flint, the former long-serving finance director, told shareholders in July 2012: “Candidly, in particular areas we fell short of the standards that I, my colleagues, our regulators, customers, and investors expect.” A grovel was the only position Flint could adopt.
  • (15) The response from architects grovelling for the fame of a tower in their CVs is that they are "only obeying orders" from clients, and that tall buildings are "the future".
  • (16) For the 100th time, I never “mocked” a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him “groveling” when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad.
  • (17) There, in all its hilarious glory, is the joke by Jimmy Carr that was transmitted on Loose Ends at the weekend, for the broadcast of which the BBC has issued a grovelling apology.
  • (18) It sees him mock his own grovelling appearance on BBC Newsnight in November, when he admitted that Dapper Laughs was “a type of comedy that I should not have been doing”.
  • (19) Michael Richards Made a grovelling apology over his 2006 rant in which he used the N-word, paradoxically on David Letterman's show.
  • (20) It said the intent was to demonstrate a resolute stand with places that share America's values – a hint at the Republican contender's claim that Obama has let down Washington's friends abroad while offering grovelling apologies to its enemies.

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