bow

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“
For as the bow is among weapons the mightiest, the most glorious, the most splendid, thus is he who knows this among all beings the mightiest, the most glorious, the most splendid.

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Definitions (111)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (28)

  1. noun Nautical The front section of a ship or boat.
  2. noun Nautical The oar or the person wielding the oar closest to the bow.
  3. intransitive verb To bend or curve downward; stoop.
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Examples (50)

  • During England's wars with France the bow was an important weapon. —  Chatterbox, 1906
  • The boat rowed up to the slippery wharf steps; in the bow were the two ringleaders and the ship's captain, in the waist of the boat the rowers, and in the stern the rank and file of the pirates, some eight or ten ill-looking fellows chained together. —  Pirate Gold
  • He made a sort of apologetic movement of the head and shoulders towards her which was not exactly a bow--for to an Englishman's mind a bow is almost a familiarity--but which expressed a kind of vague desire not to cause any inconvenience The colour deepened a little in Clare's face, and then disappeared. —  Adam Johnstone's Son
  • To her his bow was appreciative, deferential. —  Sonnie-Boy's People
  • I know not; but this I know, that her bow has been here GUNNAR. —  The Vikings of Helgeland The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sword ·  smile ·  gesture ·  hat ·  shield ·  weapon ·  nod ·  arrow ·  ring ·  arm ·  one ·  wave

Used in the same contextWord Family

bow:   bows ·  bowed ·  bowing
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (9)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English boue, probably of Low German origin; see bheug- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English bowen, from Old English būgan; see bheug- in Indo-European roots.
  3. Middle English bowe, from Old English boga; see bheug- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. Early modern English also bowe, bough; from Middle English bowen, buwen, buʒen, from Anglo-Saxon būgan (preterit beáh, plural bugon, past participle bogen), bend, bow, flee, strong verb, only intransitive, = Old Saxon *būgan = Middle Dutch būghen, Dutch buigen = Middle Low German būgen = Old High German biogan, Middle High German G. biegen = Icelandic *bjūga (preserved in past participle boginn and preterit 3d person plural reflexive bugusk), bend; prob. = Latin fugere = Greek φεύγειν, flee, = Sanskrit √ bhuj, bend. Orig. and properly intransitive; whence the derived factitive form, Anglo-Saxon by¯gan, biégan, bēgan, Middle English buʒen, etc., modern English dial. bay, weak verb, transitive, cause to bend: see bay. Cf. Icelandic buga = Swedish buga, weak verb, bow, make a bow. Hence ult. the secondary verbs bay, buck, buckle, and the nouns bow, bought = bout = bight, bail, boul, etc.
  2. from Middle English bowe, a bend, from bowen, bend: see bow, v. Cf. bow.
  3. from Middle English bowe, boghe, boʒe, etc., a bend, curve, bow for shooting, etc., from Anglo-Saxon boga, a bow for shooting, a rainbow (in general sense ‘bend’ only in comp.) (= Old Saxon bogo = OFries. boga = Dutch boog = Middle Low German boge = Old High German bogo, Middle High German boge, German bogen = Icelandic bogi = Old Swedish boghi, Swedish båge = Danish bue, a bow, etc.), from būgan (past participle bogen), bow, bend: see bow, v.
  4. from bow, n. In some cases bow (bō), v., can hardly be distinguished, as written, from bow (bou), v.
  5. Same word as bough, but in the nautical sense, first in the 17th century, and of Low German or Scandinavian origin: Icelandic bōgr = Norwegian bog = Swedish bog = Danish boug, bov, bow of a ship, also shoulder of an animal, = Dutch boeg, bow of a ship, = Middle Low German bōch, būch, bow of a ship, shoulder (later G. bug in this sense), = Anglo-Saxon bōg, bōh, arm, branch: see bough.
  6. Also written bu; from Icelandic bū, a farm, stock, cattle (= Danish Swedish bo, dwelling, = Anglo-Saxon bū = Old Saxon bū, dwelling, = Dutch bouw, tillage, building, = Old High German bū, dwelling, tillage, building, Middle High German bū, bou, German bau, tillage, building), from būa = Anglo-Saxon būan, dwell: see by, bower, boor, etc., from the same root.
 

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