Link Centre Dictionary

bow

UK/bəʊ/ US/ˈbɵʊ̯/ common
verb (5) noun (9)

verb

1.

bend one''s knee or body, or lower one''s head

  • “He bowed before the King”
  • “She bowed her head in shame”
Synonyms
2.

submit or yield to another''s wish or opinion

  • “The government bowed to the military pressure”
Synonyms
3.

bend the head or the upper part of the body in a gesture of respect or greeting

  • “He bowed before the King”
4.

bend one''s back forward from the waist on down

  • “he crouched down”
  • “She bowed before the Queen”
  • “The young man stooped to pick up the girl”
Synonyms
5.

noun

1.

a knot with two loops and loose ends; used to tie shoelaces

Synonyms
2.

a slightly curved piece of resilient wood with taut horsehair strands, used in playing certain stringed instrument

3.

front part of a vessel or aircraft

  • “he pointed the bow of the boat toward the finish line”
Synonyms
4.

curved piece of resilient wood with taut cord to propel arrows

5.

something curved in shape

Synonyms
6.

bending the head or body or knee as a sign of reverence or submission or shame

Synonyms
7.

an appearance by actors or performers at the end of the concert or play in order to acknowledge the applause of the audience

Synonyms
8.

a decorative interlacing of ribbons

9.

a stroke with a curved piece of wood with taut horsehair strands that is used in playing stringed instruments

Origin

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 and 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”).

Phrases

  • another string to one's bow
  • bow and arrow
  • bow and scrape
  • bow ball
  • Bow Brickhill
  • bow bug
  • bow cap
  • bow chaser
  • bow collector
  • bow compass
  • Bow Creek
  • bow down

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Parts

Part of

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.