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.
Why kowtow to those awful older buildings instead of knocking them down to start again with a neat, clean field?
Most importantly, this would be an admission of failure which would amount to kowtowing to the financial sector.
It is not kowtowing to any momentary spasm.
In fact, one cannot kowtow to both arguments.
Do we create some kind of licensing system for journalists which prevents them from working until they kowtow to the courts?
It is a dependency economy kowtowing to successive governments for hand-outs.
It is not acceptable that the interests of our businessmen and consumers are treated as if we constantly have to kowtow.
However, we have found that his policy allows him to bully and lecture the weak while kowtowing obsequiously to the strong.
