bow
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bō
ipa: /bəʊ/
enpr: bō
ipa: /boʊ/
rhymes: -əʊ
homophone: beau
homophone: bo
enpr: bou
ipa: /baʊ/
rhymes: -aʊ
homophone: bao
homophone: bough
enpr: bō
ipa: /bəʊ/
enpr: bō
ipa: /boʊ/
rhymes: -əʊ
homophone: beau
homophone: bo
Forms: form: bows
form: bowing
form: bowed
form: bowed
Etymology: 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”).
Senses: examples: text: 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."
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: That singer always bows towards her audience for some reason.
glosses: To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference.
examples: text: The show bowed in the first week of December, 1951. Dinah was ready, and so were the technicians who put on her makeup […]
ref: 1979, Bruce Cassiday, Dinah!: A Biography, page 115:
text: SCP recently announced that How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical will bow on the newly renovated stage next December.
ref: 2010 (publication date), Kara Krekeler, "Rebuilding the opera house", West End Word, volume 39, number 26, December 22, 2010 – January 11, 2011, page 1
glosses: To debut.
examples: text: I bow to your better judgement in the matter.
glosses: To defer (to something).
examples: text: “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.
ref: 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:
text: Poirot rose gallantly, bowed her into the seat opposite him.
ref: 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 7, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 124:
text: 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.
ref: 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 302:
glosses: To give a direction, indication, or command to by bowing.
Hypernyms: sense: gesture
word: gesture
sense: gesture
word: congee
sense: gesture
word: congé
sense: gesture
word: conge
Derived terms: bow and scrape
bow down
bow down before the porcelain god
bow in
bowing stone
bow out
bow to
embow
imbow
make one's bow
outbow
overbow
scrape and bow
take a bow
unbow
upbow