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Bow

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bow¹

  • /ˈbəʊ̯/ UK
  • /ˈboʊ̯/ US
  • /ˈbɔʊ̯/ US
  • /ˈbəʉ̯/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /ˈbɐ̝ʉ̯/ Australia, New Zealand

Sounds like beau, bo · Rhymes with -əʊ

Where it comes from

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”).

noun bows

  1. 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
  2. A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow).
  3. A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments.
  4. A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking.
  5. 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.
  6. Anything bent or curved, such as a rainbow. I do set my bow in the cloud.
  7. The U-shaped piece which goes around the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea.
  11. Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddle tree.
  12. The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key.
  13. Either of the two handles of a pair of scissors.

verb bows · bowing · bowed

  1. To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow. The musician bowed his violin expertly.
  2. ergative To bend or curve, particularly downward. The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.
  3. figuratively, transitive 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.

bow²

  • /baʊ/

Sounds like bao, bough · Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

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”).

verb bows · bowing · bowed

  1. intransitive To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference. 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."
  2. intransitive, transitive 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 […]
  3. intransitive To defer (to something). I bow to your better judgement in the matter.
  4. transitive 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.
  5. intransitive To give up or cease resisting. I'll never bow to that tyrant.

noun bows

  1. 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.

bow³

  • /baʊ/

Sounds like bough · Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

PIE word

*bʰeh₂ǵʰús

From Middle English bowe, bowgh, a borrowing from Middle Low German bôch and/or Middle Dutch boech, from Proto-Germanic *bōguz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵʰus (“arm”). Doublet of bough.

Cognates

Cognate with Dutch boeg (“bow”), German Bug (“bow, prow (of a ship); shoulder joint (of an animal)”), Luxembourgish Buch, Bou (“shoulder joint (of an animal)”), Danish bov (“bow”), Icelandic bógur (“bow”), Norwegian Bokmål baug (“bow”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish bog (“bow; shoulder (of an animal)”).

noun bows

  1. The front of a boat or ship. Holonyms: watercraft < vessel
  2. The rower that sits in the seat closest to the bow of the boat.

bow⁴

Where it comes from

See bough.

noun bows

  1. obsolete Obsolete spelling of bough.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.

bow⁵

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Mandarin 包 (bāo) or Cantonese 包 (baau1).

noun bows · bao · bau

  1. alternative Alternative form of bao; any of several Chinese buns and breadsbao

bow⁶

  • /baʊ/

Sounds like bough · Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

Clipping of boutta, itself a contraction of about to.

verb

  1. auxiliary about to

bow⁷

Where it comes from

Clipping of bow-wow

interjection

  1. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of bow-wow

noun bows

  1. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of bow-wow

verb bows · bowing · bowed

  1. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of bow-wow

Bow⁸

  • /bəʊ/

proper noun Bows

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable A suburb of eastern London in the borough of Tower Hamlets, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ3782).
  3. countable, uncountable A village and civil parish in Mid Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS7201).
  4. countable, uncountable A hamlet in Ashprington parish, South Hams district, Devon (OS grid ref SX8156).
  5. countable, uncountable A hamlet in Stanford in the Vale parish, Vale of White Horse district, Oxfordshire, England (OS grid ref SU3494).
  6. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Cumberland County, Kentucky.
  7. countable, uncountable A town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire.
  8. countable, uncountable An unincorporated commmunity in Skagit County, Washington.
  9. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of Bow Creek
  10. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of Bow Street

BOW⁹

noun BOWs · BoW

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of bag of words.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.

BoW10

noun BoWs

  1. Alternative letter-case form of BOW.BOW

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