kowtow

Smaller domestic military budgets also reduce the need for companies to kowtow to politicians by maintaining unprofitable operations in their districts or supporting civilian projects.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026

The need to kowtow seems to have scarred Torres.

From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024

"They expect to be treated with respect... and they don't expect institutions to kowtow to the United States."

From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2021

He’s an American native and a fiercely secular one at that, but the controversy awakens something in him, a stubborn individualism and a refusal to kowtow to ignorance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2021

Or would Miss Love do like Mama and kowtow to Loma for the sake of peace in the family?

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

The head of the department is a micromanager and everyone kowtows to him.

From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2023

“I had to do three kowtows to the sun,” Mr. Hunt told The Guardian.

From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2022

Even when her voice is high and sweet, she never kowtows.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 14, 2019

And then he watches as Katrina kowtows to the Headless Horseman, in fact saving his life but also showing her shifting allegiance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2014

Trees bowed in deep kowtows or broke their backs, a series of snaps like firecrackers popping, until one loud, sickening crack added to the cacophony in the sky.

From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin

To leave James alone on a first-round island might be unfair, but the Lakers have kowtowed to him plenty in his eight years here.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026

It kowtowed to every fashionable agenda to protect its independence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026

“They kowtowed to this apparent superstar with poor results.”

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2024

David Brent was the personification of what every person loathes about themselves when they inevitably succumb to the workforce—superficial, petty, and incompetent, just like the status quo he kowtowed to.

From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2016

“You’ve scraped and kowtowed enough, Sonny,” she said.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

Bennett argued presciently that by kowtowing to radicals, “a great university was brought low by the very forces which modern universities came into being to oppose: ignorance, irrationality and intimidation.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026

Those early signs of kowtowing were bad indicators that the members of Youngstown State University’s faculty union just couldn’t get behind.

From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2025

"A kowtowing of the East towards the West is not a rising East."

From BBC ● May 1, 2025

Rolly never acted like he was kowtowing to the boss.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2023

I don’t know why, but right then it finally dawned on me that Papa had wanted to please Grandpa out of respect and gratitude, not from kowtowing.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns