grovel before

grovel before (someone)

To interact with someone in an overtly agreeable or deferential manner. The phrase can also specifically refer to the act of prostration. Well, if your mother's mad at me, I guess I'm going to have to grovel before her—we want this family dinner to be pleasant, after all. Get down and grovel before your king.
See also: before, grovel
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

grovel before someone or something

to prostrate oneself before someone or something. The prisoner groveled before his accusers. The peasant groveled before the lord of the manor.
See also: before, grovel
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • grovel before (someone)
  • grovel to
  • grovel to (someone)
  • grovel in
  • grovel in (something)
  • grovel
  • in respect to
  • in respect to (someone or something)
  • swirl
  • down with the swirl
References in periodicals archive
Is the gay movement in this country so cowed by the appointed Bush junta that it must grovel before this despicable religious tyrant who is the Aaron to Bush's Moses?
A friend indeed? (reader forum)
He wants to argue that the duel was an aristocratic ritual that proved irresistible to bourgeois arrivistes, who were consequently weaned from the humane and rational values of their class to grovel before the brutal Standesehre of jack-booted Junkers.
The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany
These things were not done, leaving the West to grovel before OPEC for a decade or more.
Self-Inflicted Wounds: From LBJ's Guns and Butter to Reagan's Voodoo Economics