"fall to one's knees" meaning in English

See fall to one's knees in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: falls to one's knees [present, singular, third-person], falling to one's knees [participle, present], fell to one's knees [past], fallen to one's knees [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,fell,fallen>}} fall to one's knees (third-person singular simple present falls to one's knees, present participle falling to one's knees, simple past fell to one's knees, past participle fallen to one's knees)
  1. To collapse into a crouched kneeling position.
    Sense id: en-fall_to_one's_knees-en-verb-Knwe4dqq Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Italian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 77 23 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 64 36 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 68 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 77 23 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 75 25 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 75 25 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 77 23
  2. (figuratively, Internet slang) To be in disbelief, or despair. Tags: Internet, figuratively
    Sense id: en-fall_to_one's_knees-en-verb-l~2vvKJh
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Translations (Translations): pudota polvilleen (Finnish), auf die Knie fallen (German), buttarsi in ginocchio (Italian)
Disambiguation of 'Translations': 43 57

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "falls to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "falling to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fell to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fallen to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,fell,fallen>"
      },
      "expansion": "fall to one's knees (third-person singular simple present falls to one's knees, present participle falling to one's knees, simple past fell to one's knees, past participle fallen to one's knees)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "64 36",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "75 25",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "75 25",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Italian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              35,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 30, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 161:",
          "text": "And then he dropped the pistol and fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands and began to cry violently, his shoulders heaving and his head bouncing and the exasperation of something having finally reached its end.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To collapse into a crouched kneeling position."
      ],
      "id": "en-fall_to_one's_knees-en-verb-Knwe4dqq",
      "links": [
        [
          "collapse",
          "collapse"
        ],
        [
          "crouch",
          "crouch"
        ],
        [
          "kneel",
          "kneel"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in disbelief, or despair."
      ],
      "id": "en-fall_to_one's_knees-en-verb-l~2vvKJh",
      "links": [
        [
          "Internet",
          "Internet"
        ],
        [
          "disbelief",
          "disbelief"
        ],
        [
          "despair",
          "despair"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively, Internet slang) To be in disbelief, or despair."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Internet",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "_dis1": "43 57",
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "pudota polvilleen"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "43 57",
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "auf die Knie fallen"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "43 57",
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "lang_code": "it",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "buttarsi in ginocchio"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fall to one's knees"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Italian translations",
    "Translation table header lacks gloss"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "falls to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "falling to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fell to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fallen to one's knees",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,fell,fallen>"
      },
      "expansion": "fall to one's knees (third-person singular simple present falls to one's knees, present participle falling to one's knees, simple past fell to one's knees, past participle fallen to one's knees)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              35,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 30, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 161:",
          "text": "And then he dropped the pistol and fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands and began to cry violently, his shoulders heaving and his head bouncing and the exasperation of something having finally reached its end.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To collapse into a crouched kneeling position."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "collapse",
          "collapse"
        ],
        [
          "crouch",
          "crouch"
        ],
        [
          "kneel",
          "kneel"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English internet slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in disbelief, or despair."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Internet",
          "Internet"
        ],
        [
          "disbelief",
          "disbelief"
        ],
        [
          "despair",
          "despair"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively, Internet slang) To be in disbelief, or despair."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Internet",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "pudota polvilleen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "auf die Knie fallen"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "lang_code": "it",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "buttarsi in ginocchio"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fall to one's knees"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.