obeisance
noun
definition 1: a gesture of the body, such as a bow, made to indicate respect or submission.
example: He made his humble obeisance to his lord and set off on his mission.
definition 2: an attitude of respect or submission.
example: The servant understood the master’s wish and bowed in obeisance.
Quotations:
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door —
Perched, and sat, and nothing more. (E.A. Poe, The Raven)
Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path. (Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress Of Florence)