bow

From Middle English bowe, from Old English boga, Proto-West Germanic *bogō, from Proto-Germanic *bugô.

Cognate with West Frisian boge, Dutch boog, German Bogen, Swedish båge.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bō, IPA^(key): /bəʊ/
• (General American) enPR: bō, IPA^(key): /boʊ/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: beau

bow (plural bows)

2. (archery) A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are connected by a string, used for shooting arrows.
3. A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow).
5. (music) A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments.
6. A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking.
8. A type of knot with two loops, used to tie together two cords such as shoelaces or apron strings, and frequently used as decoration, such as in gift-wrapping.
9. Anything bent or curved, such as a rainbow.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 9:13:

     I do set my bow in the cloud.

10. The U-shaped piece which goes around the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke.
11. Either of the arms of a pair of spectacles, running from the side of the lens to behind the wearer's ear.
    • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

      […] she kept toying with a pair of old sunglasses which lay beside her on the kitchen table. One of the bows had been mended with adhesive tape, and one of the lenses was cracked.

12. Any instrument consisting of an elastic rod, with ends connected by a string, employed for giving reciprocating motion to a drill, or for preparing and arranging hair, fur, etc., used by hatters.
13. (nautical) A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea.
14. (saddlery) Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddle tree.
15. The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key.

    Coordinate term: blade

16. Either of the two handles of a pair of scissors.

• (bow-shaped bend): arc, bend, curve
• (tool for playing stringed instruments): fiddlestick
• (a type of stringed instrument): musical bow

bow (third-person singular simple present bows, present participle bowing, simple past and past participle bowed)

1. To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow.

   The musician bowed his violin expertly.

2. (intransitive) To become bent or curved.

   The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 62:3:

     How long wil ye imagine mischiefe against a man? ye shall be slaine all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.

3. (transitive) To make something bend or curve.
   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], chapter I, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book II, page 32:

     […] as when we bow things the contrary way, to make them come to their naturall ſtraitneſſe.

   • 1843, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     The whole nation […] bowed their necks to the worst kind of tyranny.

4. (transitive, figurative) To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend, figuratively; to turn; to incline.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Atheism”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Adversities do more bow men's minds to religion.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

     not to bow and bias their opinions

5. (transitive, figurative) To humble or subdue, to make submit.
   • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

     Know thou the secret of a spirit
     Bow’d from its wild pride into shame.

From Middle English bowen, buwen, buȝen, from Old English būgan, from Proto-West Germanic *beugan, from Proto-Germanic *beuganą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewgʰ- (“to bend”). Cognate with West Frisian bûge (“to bow”), Dutch buigen (“to bow”), German biegen (“to bow”), Danish bue (“to curve, arch”).

• enPR: bou, IPA^(key): /baʊ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ
• Homophone: bough

bow (third-person singular simple present bows, present participle bowing, simple past and past participle bowed)

1. (intransitive) To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference.
   • 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:

     The soldier now blew upon a green whistle, and at once a young girl, dressed in a pretty green silk gown, entered the room. She had lovely green hair and green eyes, and she bowed low before Dorothy as she said, "Follow me and I will show you your room."

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

   That singer always bows towards her audience for some reason.

2. (transitive and intransitive) To debut.
   • 1979, Bruce Cassiday, Dinah!: A Biography, page 115:

     The show bowed in the first week of December, 1951. Dinah was ready, and so were the technicians who put on her makeup […]

   • 2010 (publication date), Kara Krekeler, "Rebuilding the opera house", West End Word, volume 39, number 26, December 22, 2010 – January 11, 2011, page 1:

     SCP recently announced that How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical will bow on the newly renovated stage next December.

3. (intransitive) To defer (to something).

   I bow to your better judgement in the matter.

4. (transitive) To give a direction, indication, or command to by bowing.
   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 7, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 124:

     Poirot rose gallantly, bowed her into the seat opposite him.

   • 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 302:

     He saw himself, in a smart suit and a songkok, bowed into the opulent suites of Ritzes and Waldorfs and baring, under dark glasses, a hairy chest to a milder sun by a snakeless sea.

• (gesture): gesture; congee, congé, conge

bow (plural bows)

1. A gesture, usually showing respect, made by inclining the head or bending forward at the waist; a reverence

   He made a polite bow as he entered the room.

• (gesture): gesture; congee, congé, conge

From Middle English bowe, bowgh, a borrowing from Middle Low German bôch and/or Middle Dutch boech, from Proto-Germanic *bōguz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵʰus (“arm”). Cognate with Dutch boeg (“bow”), Danish bov (“bow”), Swedish bog (“bow”). Doublet of bough.

• enPR: bou, IPA^(key): /baʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ
• Homophone: bough

bow (plural bows)

1. (nautical) The front of a boat or ship.
   • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

     The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity.

2. (rowing) The rower that sits in the seat closest to the bow of the boat.

• Often used in the plural, the ship being considered to have starboard and port bows, meeting at the stem.

• (of a ship): prow

• (antonym(s) of “of a ship”): poop, stern

See bough.

bow (plural bows)

1. Obsolete spelling of bough.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 17, column 1:

     Where the Bee ſucks, there ſuck I, / In a Cowſlips bell, I lie, / There I cowch when Owles doe crie, / On the Batts backe I doe flie / after Sommer merrily. / Merrily, merrily, ſhall I liue now / Vnder the bloſſom that hangs on the Bow.

   • 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], chapter VII, in The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN, page 154:

     [Y]ou are to faſten that line to any bow neer to a hole where a Pike is, or is likely to lye, or to have a haunt, […]

Borrowed from Mandarin 包 (bāo) or Cantonese 包 (baau1).

• bao, bau

bow (plural bows)

1. Alternative form of bao; any of several Chinese buns and breads

See bao

• bow-wow, bow chicka wow wow (different etymology)
• bow diddley, diddley bow (different etymology)
• coll'arco
• curtsey
• kowtow
• throw them bows

•   Bow (weapon) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Wikipedia article on bows (weapons))
•   Bow (knot) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Wikipedia article on bows (the knots))
•   Bowing (social) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Wikipedia article on bows, the gestures of respect)
•   Bow (ship) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Wikipedia article on the bows of ships)

•   Bow (music) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Wikipedia article on bows used to play string instruments)
•   Musical bow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Wikipedia article on musical bows)

•   Bow in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• wbo, Wob, BwO, WBO

From Dutch bouwen (“to build”).

bow

1. to build
2. (figurative, with tapu) to trust, to depend on

   wan sma di yu kan bow na en tapu ― someone you can depend on

• IPA^(key): /boːf/

• Audio:

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bōw f (plural bowa)

1. woman
2. wife