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brow¹

  • /bɹaʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

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”).

For noun sense 4, compare Italian piglio (“aspect, countenance”).

noun brows

  1. The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located.
  2. The eyebrow. ’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.
  3. The forehead. 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,[…]
  4. figuratively Aspect; appearance; facial expression. Take it away; I'm frightened! / But she, with placid brow, / Cries: "This is our Kitty-witty! / Why don't you love her now?"
  5. The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill. the brow of a precipice
  6. The first tine of an antler's beam.
  7. A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
  8. The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
  9. The hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp.

Similar: forehead

verb brows · browing · browed

  1. To bound or limit; to be at, or form, the edge of. Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts / That brow this bottom glade.

Brow²

Where it comes from

* As an English surname, from the noun brow.

* As a French surname, variant of Brault and also Breaux. Compare Bro, Broe.

* As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Brouw, either from the verb brouwen (“to brew”) or a variant of op den Brouw, a toponym of uncertain origin (possibly itself related to brouwen).

proper noun Brows

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: eyebrow, forehead, supercilium, hilltop, face, gateway, front, walkway, bridge, footbridge, overpass, catwalk, gangway, passerelle, head-on, penalty

noun

Similar: forehead

Translations

Every language

noun the bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located

Españolsobrecejo, sobreceja

noun the projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill

Portuguêspico
Italianociglio, orlo, cima

noun first tine of an antler's beam

Françaisandouiller d'œil, maître andouiller, andouiller de massacre

noun the gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay

Italianopasserella da sbarco
Русскийтрап trap

noun the hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp

Italianopasserella da sbarco

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Cite this
MLA

"brow." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/brow. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

brow. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/brow

Chicago

"brow." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/brow.

BibTeX
@misc{brow_2026,
  title = {brow},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/brow},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}