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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
obeisance
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
make
▪ Was she about to make some obeisance to it?
▪ We all make obeisance to it.
▪ When they are successful a bell rings and a mechanical buddha lights up and makes a creaky obeisance.
▪ Joseph saw Tran Van Hieu and his father make their obeisance gravely beside other high-ranking Annamese.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Alexei completed his obeisance, then sat up.
▪ In the meantime, let's not forget that icons are not for passive obeisance.
▪ Joseph saw Tran Van Hieu and his father make their obeisance gravely beside other high-ranking Annamese.
▪ The grail itself was sin, none other than sin itself; what greater obeisance to Love itself than to part with all?
▪ Victory is both a felicitous dip of the head and a glorious obeisance towards the changed life that will surely follow it.
▪ Was she about to make some obeisance to it?
▪ We all make obeisance to it.
▪ When they are successful a bell rings and a mechanical buddha lights up and makes a creaky obeisance.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Obeisance

Obeisance \O*bei"sance\, n. [F. ob['e]issance obedience, fr. ob['e]issant. See Obey, and cf. Obedience, Abaisance.]

  1. Obedience. [Obs.]
    --Chaucer.

  2. Deference or homage, or an expression of deference or respect; a bow; a curtsy.

    Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance unto the king.
    --1 Kings i. 16.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
obeisance

late 14c., "act or fact of obeying," from Old French obeissance "obedience, service, feudal duty" (13c.), from obeissant, present participle of obeir "obey," from Latin oboedire (see obey). Sense in English altered late 14c. to "bending or prostration of the body as a gesture of submission or respect" by confusion with abaisance. Related: Obeisant.

Wiktionary
obeisance

n. 1 Demonstration of an obedient attitude, especially by bowing deeply; a deep bow which demonstrates such an attitude. 2 An obedient attitude.

WordNet
obeisance
  1. n. bending the head or body or knee as a sign of reverence or submission or shame [syn: bow, bowing]

  2. the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with respect to another person [syn: obedience] [ant: disobedience]

Usage examples of "obeisance".

As he sate thus, with his dark eye turned towards the scowling and blackening heaven, a horseman rode rapidly up to him, and stopping, as if to let his horse breathe for an instant, made a sort of obeisance to the anchoret, with an air betwixt effrontery and embarrassment.

Et Avian, appearing feeble and infirm, made no effort to show obeisance but only raised his face to stare at the Supreme Leader.

I exchanged cordial good wishes and obeisances, and, with the women dragging my sorry mare by a rope round her nose, we left the glorious shrines and solemn cryptomeria groves of Nikko behind, passed down its long, clean street, and where the In Memoriam avenue is densest and darkest turned off to the left by a path like the bed of a brook, which afterwards, as a most atrocious trail, wound about among the rough boulders of the Daiya, which it crosses often on temporary bridges of timbers covered with branches and soil.

Amongst the pleasures and popular delectations, which wandered hither and thither, you might see the pompe of the goddesse triumphantly march forward : The woman attired in white vestiments, and rejoicing, in that they bare garlands and flowers upon their heads, bedspread the waies with hearbes, which they bare in their aprons, where this regall and devout procession should passe : Other caried glasses on their backes, to testifie obeisance to the goddess which came after.

Clutch and stood before Edger to make the obeisance that indicated he had urgent need to speak.

Hamilton approached him, submissively, looking down, and knelt before him, the monster, putting her head to the stone, desperate to pacify him, in her femaleness to make obeisance to the male in him, to be pleasing to him, to plead with him for her life.

There was no flaring, no flummery, nor bombastical pretensions, but a dignified return to my obeisance, and an immediate recurrence, in converse, to the important duties incumbent on us, in our stations, as reformers and purifiers of the Church.

God laughed through her mouth then, a lovely yet terrible sound-hoi hoi hoi I made obeisance, turned hurriedly and went stumbling away, sprawling headlong down the first flight of broken stairs, cutting my forehead and knees, and so painfully out, the tremendous laughter pursuing me.

The God laughed through her mouth then, a lovely yet terrible sound-hoi hoi hoi I made obeisance, turned hurriedly and went stumbling away, sprawling headlong down the first flight of broken stairs, cutting my forehead and knees, and so painfully out, the tremendous laughter pursuing me.

Then Bootea was led by the priest down to the cold merciless stone Linga, where she, at a word from the priest, knelt in obeisance, a barbaric outburst of music from horn and drum clamouring a salute.

Jenna noticed-they met in their walk gave a quick bow of obeisance to the Moister, but Jenna felt their eyes on her, curious and wondering.

He had expected at least to see rebaptisms by the devil, and the ritual of allegiance to Satan, the kiss of shame, obeisance paid the devil by saluting his hindquarters.

At last poor Genly sat slumped in a niche of baobab boughs, and the other Minids, sticky with sisal balm, cascaded to the ground one after another to offer their heartfelt obeisance to the corpse.

Jacob salaamed to the floor in a very frenzy of obeisance, he was not sure that Skol looked any more formidable than the mail-clad Frank with his aspect of dynamic and terrible strength directed by a tigerish nature.

On the point of entering, they spied the cloaked enchantress, bobbed a hasty obeisance, and backed out into the street in silence.