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bow

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Bow, BoW, and BOW

Translingual

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Symbol

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bow

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Rema.

See also

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology 1

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

    Cognates

    Cognate with Saterland Frisian Booge (“arch, bow, curve”), West Frisian bôge (“arc, arch, bow”), Dutch boog (“arc, arch, bow”), German Bogen (“arc, arch, bow, curve”), Luxembourgish Bou (“arc, arch, bow, curve”), Vilamovian böga (“arc, arch, bend, bow, curve”), Yiddish בויגן (boygn, “arc, arch, bow, curve”), Danish bue (“arc, arch, bow, curve”), Faroese, Icelandic bogi (“arch, bow, vault”), Jamtish buga (“bow”), Norwegian Bokmål bue (“arc, arch, bow”), Norwegian Nynorsk boge (“arc, arch, bow”), Swedish båge (“bow”), Crimean Gothic boga (“bow”).

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    A bow (etymology 1 sense 1)
    Four different types of bow (etymology 1 sense 3)
    A gift box wrapped with a bow (etymology 1 sense 5)

    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.
      Holonym: bow and arrow
      • 2024 November 28, blumineck, “Fantasy vs Reality: 5 weapons that fantasy gets wrong!”, in youtube.com‎[1], retrieved 7 May 2025:
        Bows come in a variety of different shapes, sizes and cultures, and what is true of one, is not necessarily true of another, so we're gonna be stereotyping here, but, in general, a bow is a way of launching a pointy stick at somebody that you don't like.
    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.
    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.
    Synonyms
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    Hyponyms
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    archery
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Verb

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    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. (ergative) To bend or curve, particularly downward.
      The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.
    3. (transitive, figurative) To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend or incline, figuratively; to humble or subdue.
      • 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
      • 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.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Etymology 2

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      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”).

      Cognates

      Cognate with Scots boo, bou (“to bend, bow”), Dutch buigen (“to bow”), German biegen (“to bow”), Low German bugen (“to bow”), Luxembourgish béien (“to bow”), Danish bue (“to curve, arch”), Swedish buga (“to bow”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌲𐌰𐌽 (biugan, “to bend, bow”).

      Pronunciation

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      Verb

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      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.
        • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Plot That Failed”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 63:
          “This way, monsieur,” he said, and led the way up the broad, marble staircase. In another moment he had opened a door, and, drawing aside a heavy curtain, obsequiously bowed Tarzan into a dimly lighted apartment. Then Jacques vanished.
        • 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.
      Hypernyms
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      Translations
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      The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
      Translations to be checked

      Noun

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      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.
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      Translations
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      Etymology 3

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        PIE word
        *bʰeh₂ǵʰús
        English Wikipedia has an article on:
        Wikipedia

        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”). Doublet of bough.

        Cognates

        Cognate with Dutch boeg (“bow”), German Bug (“bow, prow (of a ship); shoulder joint (of an animal)”), Luxembourgish Buch, Bou (“shoulder joint (of an animal)”), Danish bov (“bow”), Icelandic bógur (“bow”), Norwegian Bokmål baug (“bow”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish bog (“bow; shoulder (of an animal)”).

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        The bow of a ship.

        bow (plural bows)

        2. (nautical) The front of a boat or ship.
          Synonyms: stem, forestem, fore, prow, prore
          Antonyms: stern, aft, poop
          Holonyms: watercraft < vessel
          Meronyms: beak, beak, beakhead
          • 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.
        3. (rowing) The rower that sits in the seat closest to the bow of the boat.
        Usage notes
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        • Often used in the plural, the ship being considered to have starboard and port bows, meeting at the stem.
        Derived terms
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        Translations
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        Etymology 4

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        See bough.

        Noun

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        bow (plural bows)

        1. Obsolete spelling of bough.

        Etymology 5

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

        Alternative forms

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        Noun

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        bow (plural bows)

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

        Translations
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        Etymology 6

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        Clipping of boutta, itself a contraction of about to.

        Pronunciation

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        Verb

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        bow (auxiliary)

        1. about to

        Etymology 7

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        Clipping of bow-wow

        Interjection

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        bow

        1. Ellipsis of bow-wow

        Noun

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        bow (plural bows)

        1. Ellipsis of bow-wow

        Verb

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

        1. Ellipsis of bow-wow

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        Further reading

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        References

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        Anagrams

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        Middle English

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        Verb

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        bow

        1. (West Riding) alternative form of bowen

        Sranan Tongo

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        Etymology

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        From Dutch bouwen (“to build”).

        Pronunciation

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        • IPA(key): /bou̯/, [bʊ̞u̯], [bɔ̝u̯]

        Verb

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        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

        Vilamovian

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        1. bow

        Etymology

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        From Old High German wīb, from Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą.

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        bōw f (plural bowa)

        1. woman
          Synonym: fraoj
        2. wife
          Synonym: fraoj

        Yola

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        Etymology

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        Borrowed from Irish badhbh.

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        Noun

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        bow

        1. banshee
        2. (derisive) bad singer

        References

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        • Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (1990), “A Modern Glossary of the Dialect of Forth and Bargy”, in lrish University Review‎[2], volume 20, number 1, Edinburgh University Press, page 154
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