[f. prec. sb.] intr. To perform the kotow.
1864. D. F. Rennie, Brit. Arms N. China, 232. He kowtowed to him in proof of his anxiety to follow his advice and give up opium.
1892. Mission. Herald (Boston), Aug., 326. The literary graduates kneel and kotow before each one of these shrines. Ibid., A tien, or cushion, to kneel on in kotowing.
b. fig. To act in an obsequious manner.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. xii. The Marquess kotooed like a first-rate Mandarin, and vowed ‘that her will was his conduct.’
1883. Harriet Prescott Spofford, in Harper’s Mag., March, 578/2. The doctor kowtowed to him.
Hence Kotowing vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Kotowism, the practice of kotowing.
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, II. 55. Hull, who watched his worship with an almost Koo-too-ing kindness. Ibid. (1837), Jack Brag, I. viii. 259. The little group in the full exercise of Koo-too-ism.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. of Snobs, xxxvi. It was nothing compared to the bowing and kotooing.
