bow
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: archery
entertainment
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
music
nautical
politics
sports
transport
war
Etymology: 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”).
Inflected forms:
form: bows
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bows
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bowing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bowed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bowed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are connected by a string, used for shooting arrows.
pos: noun
examples: Holonym: bow and arrow
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.
gloss: A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow).
pos: noun
gloss: A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments.
pos: noun
gloss: A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: Anything bent or curved, such as a rainbow.
pos: noun
examples: I do set my bow in the cloud.
gloss: The U-shaped piece which goes around the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke.
pos: noun
gloss: Either of the arms of a pair of spectacles, running from the side of the lens to behind the wearer's ear.
pos: noun
examples: […] 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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea.
pos: noun
gloss: Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddle tree.
pos: noun
gloss: The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key.
pos: noun
gloss: Either of the two handles of a pair of scissors.
pos: noun
gloss: To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow.
pos: verb
examples: The musician bowed his violin expertly.
gloss: To bend or curve, particularly downward.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: 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.
The whole nation […]bowed their necks to the worst kind of tyranny.
gloss: To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend or incline, figuratively; to humble or subdue.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: 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.
Related words: buxom
elbow
Derived words: 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
bow spring
bowstave
Bow Street
bowstring
bowstringer
bow stroke
bow tie
bowtie
bow window
bowwoman
bow-wood
bowyer
Brocken bow
Broken Bow
brush bow
cloud bow
Cupid's bow
dickie bow
dicky bow
diddley bow
downbow
down bow
draw a long bow
draw the long bow
drill bow
facebow
flax bow
fogbow
fog bow
footbow
greatbow
hairbow
have two strings to one's bow
jazz bow
knuckle bow
Medicine Bow
moonbow
mouthbow
musical bow
oxbow
pelletbow
play bow
pull the long bow
pussy bow
pussycat bow
rainbow
saddlebow
saddle bow
sea-bow
shaft bow
Silver Bow
Silver Bow County
smoker's bow
spray bow
stone bow
stonebow
stretch the long bow
string to one's bow
sunbow
torrent-bow
up bow
warbow
xbow
bowman
bowsman
bowswoman
midbow
overbow
bowable
bower
bow up
diddley bower
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: strykstok
lang: Arabic
word: قَوْس
roman: qaws
lang: Arabic
word: عصاية
roman: ʕaṣāya
lang: Asturian
word: arcu
lang: Belarusian
word: смычо́к
roman: smyčók
lang: Belarusian
word: смык
roman: smyk
lang: Breton
word: gwareg
lang: Bulgarian
word: лък
roman: lǎk
lang: Catalan
word: arc
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 弦樂器的弓 /弦乐器的弓
roman: xuányuèqì de gōng
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 琴弓
roman: qíngōng
lang: Czech
word: smyčec
lang: Danish
word: bue
lang: Dutch
word: strijkstok
lang: Esperanto
word: arĉo
lang: Finnish
word: jousi
lang: French
word: archet
lang: West-Frisian
word: strykstôk
lang: German
word: Bogen
lang: Bavarian German
word: Bogn
lang: Greek
word: δοξάρι
roman: doxári
lang: Greenlandic
word: tagiut
lang: Hebrew
word: קֶשֶׁת
roman: késhet
lang: Hungarian
word: vonó
lang: Icelandic
word: bogi
lang: Ido
word: arketo
lang: Irish
word: bogha
lang: Italian
word: arco
lang: Italian
word: archetto
lang: Japanese
word: 弓
roman: yumi
lang: Kazakh
word: қияқ
roman: qiäq
lang: Kazakh
word: ысқы
roman: ysqy
lang: Khmer
word: ឆាក
roman: chaak
lang: Korean
word: 활
roman: hwal
lang: Kyrgyz
word: смычок
roman: smıcok
lang: Latvian
word: lociņš
lang: Lithuanian
word: smičius
lang: Lithuanian
word: strykas
lang: Macedonian
word: гудало
roman: gudalo
lang: Manx
word: bow
lang: Māori
word: kōpere
lang: Māori
word: whana
lang: Norman
word: artchet
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: bue
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: boge
lang: Ojibwe
word: naazhaabike'iganaak
lang: Persian
word: آرشِه
roman: ârše
lang: Polish
word: smyczek
lang: Portuguese
word: arco
lang: Romanian
word: arcuș
lang: Russian
word: смычо́к
roman: smyčók
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: bogha
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: slatag
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: гу̀дало
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: gùdalo
lang: Slovak
word: sláčik
lang: Slovene
word: lok
lang: Spanish
word: arco
lang: Swedish
word: stråke
lang: Thai
word: คันชัก
roman: kan-chák
lang: Turkish
word: yay
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: زخمه
roman: zahme
lang: Ukrainian
word: смичо́к
roman: smyčók
lang: Uzbek
word: kamoncha
lang: Vietnamese
word: vĩ
lang: Walloon
word: airçon
lang: Welsh
word: bwa