0 to show too much respect to someone in authority, always doing what you are told and changing what you do in order to please them
1 to show too much respect or obedience:
People say he kowtowed to the establishment to get elected.
During a wedding, some couples may kowtow to their respective parents, though the standing bow is today more common.
For example, some, but not all, people would choose to kowtow before the grave of an ancestor, or while making traditional offerings to an ancestor.
The household then kneels three times and kowtows nine times to pay obeisance and wish him a long life.
In extreme cases, the kowtow can be used to express profound gratitude, apology, or to beg for forgiveness.
The kowtow remains alive as part of a formal induction ceremony in certain traditional trades that involve apprenticeship or discipleship.
It is bad for the clergy, it is not dignified that the clergy should have to kowtow to the bishops as they have to do.
It cannot kowtow to the political authorities of any one state.
However, we have found that his policy allows him to bully and lecture the weak while kowtowing obsequiously to the strong.
