bow.
A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are connected by a string, used for shooting arrows.
Meaning & usage
A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are connected by a string, used for shooting arrows.
A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow).
A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments.
A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking.
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.
Anything bent or curved, such as a rainbow.
The U-shaped piece which goes around the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke.
Either of the arms of a pair of spectacles, running from the side of the lens to behind the wearer's ear.
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.
A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea.
Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddle tree.
The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key.
Either of the two handles of a pair of scissors.
Where this word 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”).
To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow.
The musician bowed his violin expertly.
To bend or curve, particularly downward.
The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.
To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend or incline, figuratively; to humble or subdue.
Where this word 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”).
To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference.
That singer always bows towards her audience for some reason.
To debut.
To defer (to something).
I bow to your better judgement in the matter.
To give a direction, indication, or command to by bowing.
To give up or cease resisting.
I'll never bow to that tyrant.
Where this word 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”).
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.
Where this word 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”).
The front of a boat or ship.
The rower that sits in the seat closest to the bow of the boat.
Where this word 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)”).
about to
Where this word comes from
Clipping of boutta, itself a contraction of about to.
Obsolete spelling of bough.
Where this word comes from
See bough.
Alternative form of bao; any of several Chinese buns and breads
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Mandarin 包 (bāo) or Cantonese 包 (baau1).
Ellipsis of bow-wow
Where this word comes from
Clipping of bow-wow
Ellipsis of bow-wow
Where this word comes from
Clipping of bow-wow
Ellipsis of bow-wow
Where this word comes from
Clipping of bow-wow
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.