bow

CEFRB1

/ˈbəʊ̯/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    To bend your body forward, or a weapon for shooting arrows.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow).

Examples

  • People in this country make it a habit to bow when they meet.

  • She gave a slight bow of her head in greeting.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈboʊ̯/
  • /baʊ/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments.

  2. A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are connected by a string, used for shooting arrows.

  3. A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking.

More examples

In context

  • I bow to your superior judgement.

  • The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.

  • The musician bowed his violin expertly.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The archer pulled back the string of his blank to shoot the arrow.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”).