Bring someone to their knees

Posted by Sauerkraut on September 04, 2000

In Reply to: Bring someone to their knees posted by Roy Rogers on August 20, 2000

: : : What does it mean to "bring someone to their knees"?

: : : Is there such a phrase?

: : : If so, what does it mean?

: : : Thanks.

: : Yes, there is such an expression. To bring someone to his (or her) knees is to best the person in a contest. If you bring a person to his knees, he loses and you win. I don't know the origin. But I am guessing that it refers to arm-wrestling. A person is straining to win and slides off his chair to his knees. That is, as I said, a guess.
: :

: I think that "Bringing someone to their knees" has much older and more life threatening origins than "arm wrestling". When an opponent was bested in a fight, he fell to his knees to beg for mercy that the fight should end and he be spared.

Another thought, but no documentation - if an opponent in a fight was hit hard enough, he would fall to his knees from the blow itself.