bow

English

/bəʊ/, /boʊ/, /baʊ/, /baʊ/

noun
Definitions
  • 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.
  • (nautical) A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea.
  • (saddlery) Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddletree.
  • The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English bowe inherited from Old English boga (bow) inherited from Proto-Germanic *bugô root from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewgʰ- (bend).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*bʰewgʰ-

Gloss

bend

Concept
Semantic Field

Basic actions and technology

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms