Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Nautical The forward part of a ship's hull; the bow.
- n. A projecting forward part, such as the front end of a ski.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The fore part of a ship; the bow; the beak.
- n. In zoôl., a prora.
- n. Profit; advantage; benefit.
- Valiant.
- n. An obsolete form of proa.
Wiktionary
- n. The fore part of a vessel; the bow; the stem; hence, the vessel itself.
- adj. Brave, valiant, gallant. Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary – prow http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prow%5B1%5D
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The fore part of a vessel; the bow; the stem; hence, the vessel itself.
- n. See proa.
- adj. Valiant; brave; gallant; courageous.
- n. Benefit; profit; good; advantage.
WordNet 3.0
- n. front part of a vessel or aircraft
Etymologies
- French proue, from Old French, from Italian dialectal prua, from Vulgar Latin *prōda, alteration of Latin prōra, from Greek prōira; see per1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“On the high curve of the prow was a device Argurios had not seen on any other ship, a wooden structure bolted to the deck in four places.”
Lord of the Silver Bow
“In the deepening twilight, the vessel's strakes gleamed like the feathers of a swan and her prow was a proud and graceful curve.”
The Falcons of Montabard
“Her prow was a dragon's head, a dragon's tail formed her stern, and dragon's wings bore her along swifter than an eagle before the storm.”
“Her poop and her prow were the only points of her hull that were exposed, and these towered so high above the bulwarks of all other vessels that to attempt to board her was both useless and dangerous.”
“She was fashioned of oak, all bolted together with iron, and at her prow was a gilded dragon most wonderfully carved.”
“The prow, which is solid, has a flat terrace, on which, for the king's up-country excursions, they mount a small field-piece, a nine or a twelve pounder.”
The English Governess at the Siamese Court
“Upon the prow was a sort of fortress, on which stood a group of soldiers armed with long spears and with large oval shields, on which were painted hieroglyphic devices”
“To crown all, seated sideways in the high, open shark's-mouth of our prow was a little dwarf of a boy, one of Media's pages, a red conch-shell, bugle-wise suspended at his side.”
“(By the prow was the fatal lady ordained to be the guide.)”
“Standing on the prow was a tall man, of a dark complexion, who saw with dilating eyes that they were approaching a dark mass of land in the shape of a cone, which rose from the midst of the waves like the hat of a Catalan.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prow’.
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 280 more...
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Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
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September Words-11849
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
psilocybin, raca, schema, myriad, copacetic, chastise, fractal, tourniquet, turncoat, vicarious, surreptitiously, clandestine and 34 more...
JTroyer "Sarayu was sitting in the prow, lokking at him." The Shack by WM Paul Oct 1, 2010
bilby Do their mermaids have nipples? May 13, 2009
madmouth Jeju has endless coffeeshops whose logos are clearly ripped off from the Starbucks logo, but whose names are totally unrelated...except for Prowbucks. May 13, 2009
bilby
There is a memory stays upon old ships,
A weightless cargo in the musty hold, --
Of bright lagoons and prow-caressing lips,
Of stormy midnights, -- and a tale untold.
They have remembered islands in the dawn,
And windy capes that tried their slender spars,
And tortuous channels where their keels have gone,
And calm blue nights of stillness and the stars.
- David Morton, 'Old Ships'. Oct 4, 2008