on one's knees

• Audio (US):

  (file)

on one's knees (not comparable)

1. Kneeling, begging or as if begging.
   • 1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC:

     For god’s love do not turn away—if you have knowledge. We suppli­ants implore you on our knees.

2. (figurative) On the verge of collapse; at the mercy of someone.
   • 2011 January 22, “Man Utd 5 - 0 Birmingham”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Hungry Berbatov then converted a Giggs cross for his third before Nani slotted a fifth with Birmingham on their knees.

   • 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 38:

     The accepted view is that at the end of hostilities in 1945, the railways were on their knees.

   • 2025 September 27, James B. Comey, quotee, “Inside the Trump Administration’s Push to Prosecute James Comey”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     “We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either,” he said.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

• “on your knees” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “on your knees” (US) / “on your knees” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.