bow
nounEtymology
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”).
Definitions
A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are…
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
A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see…
A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow).
A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for…
A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments.
›+ 28 more definitionsshow fewer
A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord…
A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking.
A type of knot with two loops, used to tie together two cords such as shoelaces or apron…
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.
Anything bent or curved, such as a rainbow.
- I do set my bow in the cloud.
The U-shaped piece which goes around the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke.
Either of the arms of a pair of spectacles, running from the side of the lens to behind…
Either of the arms of a pair of spectacles, running from the side of the lens to behind the wearer's ear.
- […] 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.
Any instrument consisting of an elastic rod, with ends connected by a string, employed…
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.
A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea.
Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddle tree.
The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key.
Either of the two handles of a pair of scissors.
To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow.
- The musician bowed his violin expertly.
To bend or curve, particularly downward.
- The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.
- 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.
- […] as when we bow things the contrary way, to make them come to their naturall ſtraitneſſe.
To exercise powerful or controlling influence over
To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend or incline, figuratively; to humble or subdue.
- Adversities do more bow men's minds to religion.
- not to bow and bias their opinions
- Know thou the secret of a spirit Bow’d from its wild pride into shame.
To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference.
- That singer always bows towards her audience for some reason.
To debut.
- The show bowed in the first week of December, 1951. Dinah was ready, and so were the technicians who put on her makeup […]
- SCP recently announced that How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical will bow on the newly renovated stage next December.
To defer (to something).
- I bow to your better judgement in the matter.
To give a direction, indication, or command to by bowing.
- “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.
- Poirot rose gallantly, bowed her into the seat opposite him.
- 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.
A gesture, usually showing respect, made by inclining the head or bending forward at the…
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.
The front of a boat or ship.
- Holonyms: watercraft < vessel
- Meronyms: beak, beak, beakhead
The rower that sits in the seat closest to the bow of the boat.
Obsolete spelling of bough.
- 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.
- [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, […]
Alternative form of bao
Alternative form of bao; any of several Chinese buns and breads
about to
Ellipsis of bow-wow
A surname.
A place name
A place name:
Initialism of bag of words.
- However, despite these shortcomings, due to its simplicity and ease of implementation, BoW is a commonly used text representation scheme, especially for text classification among other NLP problems.
Alternative letter-case form of BOW.
The neighborhood
- neighborbuxom
- neighborelbow
- neighborcomposite bow
- neighborcompound bow
- neighborcrossbow
- neighborlongbow
- neighborrecurve bow
- neighborselfbow
- neighborshortbow
- neighborstock-bow
- neighborTurkish bow
- neighborBowe
Derived
another string to one's bow, barebow, bow and arrow, bowbearer, bowbent, bow bug, bow collector, bow compass, bow drill, bow-faced, bowfin, bow frame, bowfront, bow-fronted, bow grip, bow guard, bowguard, bow harp, bowhead, bowhunt, bowhunter, bowhunting, bowhuntress, Bow Island, bow kite, bowknot, bowleg, bow-legged, bowless, bowlike, bow maker, bowmaking, bowmanship, bowmaster, bow net, bow pen, bow pencil, Bow River, bow saw, bowshot · +111 more
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at bow. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at bow. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at bow
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA