curtsey

English
woman making a curtsey

Alternative forms

Etymology

Shortened from courtesy, 16th c. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

Noun

curtsey (plural curtsies or curtseys)

  1. A small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses one calf of her leg behind the other and briefly bends her knees and lowers her body in deference.
    I refused to make so much as a curtsey for the passing nobles, as I am a staunch egalitarian.

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Translations

Verb

curtsey (third-person singular simple present curtseys or curtsies, present participle curtseying, simple past and past participle curtseyed)

  1. To make a curtsey.
    The hotel's staff variously curtsied, nodded, and bowed to the owner as she passed.
    • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge
      "I’m sure you’ll excuse me, sir," said Mrs Varden, rising and curtseying.
    • 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner
      On the other hand, Mrs. Ladbrook was standing in skull-cap and front, with her turban in her hand, curtsying and smiling blandly...
    • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, Allan Quatermain
      'I be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him...
    • 1890, James Russell Lowell, Address in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
      But DANTE was a great genius, and language curtseys to its natural Kings.
    • 1903, W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
      He curtsied low, and then bowed almost to the ground, with an imperturbable gravity that seemed almost suspicious.
    • 1908, Caroline Crawford, Folk Dances and Games
      The gentleman bows and the lady curtesys (measure eight).

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