kiss the ground

kiss the ground

To make a display of obsequious reverence, devotion, or respect. You should see these sycophants kiss the ground when the boss walks in.
See also: ground, kiss
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

kiss the ground

prostrate yourself as a token of respect.
This phrase refers to the practice, found particularly in courts of the ancient Eastern world, of throwing yourself on the ground in front of a monarch.
See also: ground, kiss
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • in the ground
  • to ground
  • hit the ground running
  • hit the ground running, to
  • shift (one's) ground
  • shift ground
  • shift your ground
  • hit the ground
  • put (one) in the ground
  • raze (something) to the ground
References in classic literature
I would have you sit under a leafy tree side by side, and read together Romeo and Juliet; and then I would have you fall on your knees and on my behalf kiss the ground on which her foot has left its imprint; then tell her it is the homage of a poet to her radiant youth and to your love for her.
'Calida is known to kiss the ground where Marcos used to walk,' Rosales said, pointing out that the solicitor general made a 'passionate' defense to the government order to bury the late dictator at the heroes' cemetery during Supreme Court oral arguments on the case in 2016.
* Go to Kiss the Ground to get a deeper understanding of the tremendous capacity of healthy soil to draw carbon from the atmosphere, and then take the #eat4climate challenge.
When Maura and her daughter depart Ben-Gurion Airport, they kneel down on the floor to kiss the ground. And they're summarily knocked over by a pair of ultra-Orthodox men wheeling suitcases.
Grant Farm is on tour, with Kellen Asebroek from Fruitition on the bill, celebrating the album release of "Kiss the Ground," its first concept album.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."
Years after the San Jacinto took you away, you would return to your island, step off the plane, drop to your knees at the airport and kiss the ground. Back you came to Brooklyn, a car stalled on the highway, steam pouring from the hood, when all you wanted was the sand of the beach burning your feet.
Kiss the ground she walks on with these lipstick flats.
I truly love her and would kiss the ground she walked on.
On a wintry day in February 2011, a three-year-old boy was standing with his grandmother before the Rumi sign in the Allee of Sycamores: Let the beauty we love be what we do, There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. She had no sooner read these words than he dropped to the ground and kissed the ice and snow.
So, Iranians know very well that there are at least hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
Third, when the protesters regained control after being evacuated for the first time by security forces on February 17, they rushed to the roundabout and began to kiss the ground in joy for being allowed by the government to continue peaceful protesting.
He's a charming ladies' man, coming out with cheesy chat-up lines like "I'd kiss the ground you walked on if you lived in a cleaner neighbourhood".
And I will admit that, after a week driving around the country with my little family, I did kiss the ground in the style made famous by the late Pope when we finally reached home.
"To kiss the ground for me is to thank this clay, this beautiful tournament and this arena," said the 17th seed.