Bowing and,,,,,,,,,,,,,?

tonesp

Bowing I can see and do Anyone any idea what scraping is?as in Bowing and Scraping :???: :???: :???: :???:

joanlawson

I think "Scrape" means to drag the foot along the ground when making the elaborate sort of old-fashioned bow that involves pointing one foot backwards. Thus "to bow and scrape" means "to be elaborately deferential".

Joan

livinglegend

joanlawson wrote:

I think "Scrape" means to drag the foot along the ground when making the elaborate sort of old-fashioned bow that involves pointing one foot backwards. Thus "to bow and scrape" means "to be elaborately deferential".

Joan

Quite right, Joan.

'Scraping' refers to the drawing back of the right leg as one bows, in such a way that the right foot scrapes along the floor. While doing such a bow, the man's left hand is pressed horizontally across the abdomen while the right is held out from the body.

Now they know, I will watch carefully to see if they get it right when people meet me in future.