Noun

1. A small bow, generally performed by a woman, where she 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.

Quotations

• 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

  ...making stately curtsies, and sweeping her train about with a rustle...

• 1928, D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

  No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed.

Verb

1. To make a curtsey.

   The hotel's staff variously curtsied, nodded, and bowed to the owner as she passed.

Quotations

• 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 curtesys 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).