brow
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɹaʊ/
rhymes: -aʊ
Forms: form: brows
Etymology: From Middle English browe, from Old English brū, from Proto-West Germanic *brāwu, from Proto-Germanic *brūwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”).
Cognate with Scots broo (“brow”), Dutch brauw (“brow”), German Braue (“eyebrow”), Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish bryn (“brow”), Faroese, Icelandic brún (“brow”). See also Middle Irish brúad, Tocharian B pärwāne (“eyebrows”), Lithuanian bruvi̇̀s, Serbo-Croatian obrva (“eyebrow”), Russian бровь (brovʹ, “brow”), Ancient Greek ὀφρύς (ophrús, “eyebrow”), Sanskrit भ्रू (bhrū, “eyebrow”)), Persian ابرو (abru, “eyebrow”), Khowar بروُ (bruú, “eyebrow”).
Senses: glosses: The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located.
examples: text: ’Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, / Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream / That can entame my spirits to your worship.
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:
text: And his arch’d brow, pulled o’er his eyes, / With solemn proof proclaims him wise.
ref: c. 1763, Charles Churchill, The Ghost:
glosses: The eyebrow.
examples: text: Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirr’d thee in thy sleep,
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
Like bubbles in a late-disturb’d stream,[…]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
text: Mr. Banks’ panama hat was in one hand, while the other drew a handkerchief across his perspiring brow.
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
glosses: The forehead.
examples: text: Take it away; I'm frightened! / But she, with placid brow, / Cries: "This is our Kitty-witty! / Why don't you love her now?"
ref: 1919, Katherine Mansfield, “Friendship”, in J. Middleton Murry, editor, The Scrapbook of Katherine Mansfield, published 1940:
glosses: Aspect; appearance; facial expression.
examples: text: the brow of a precipice
glosses: The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill.
glosses: The first tine of an antler's beam.
topics: business
mining
glosses: A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp.
Synonyms: forehead
Derived terms: beetle brow
beetle-browed
Berry Brow
bibrow
brow-antlered deer
browband
brow-beat
browbeat
browbeaten
browbone
browbound
browful
brow job
browless
brow-level
browlift
browline
browman
browplasty
brow ridge
browspot
Dobb Brow
eye brow
eyebrow
highbrow
low-brow
lowbrow
medium-brow
midbrow
middlebrow
monobrow
no-brow
overbrow
Scouse brow
sweat of one's brow
sweat of the brow
underbrow
unibrow
Weatherby brow