bow² /bō/

1. A piece of flexible wood or other material for shooting arrows, bent by means of a string stretched between its ends
2. Anything of a bent or curved shape, such as the rainbow
3. A bow-shaped strip for collecting current from an overhead wire (elec eng)
4. A yoke (Shakespeare)
5. A rod (orig curved but now nearly straight) strung with horsehair, by which the strings of a violin, etc are played
6. A ring of metal forming a handle
7. The frame surrounding the lenses, or the curved end of the leg of spectacles (US)
8. A bowknot
9. A looped knot of ribbons
10. A bow tie
11. A single movement (up or down) or stroke of the bow in playing an instrument

To handle the bow in playing

1. To play (an instrument) with a bow
2. To mark (for stringed instruments) which notes should be played downbow and which upbow

bowˈing noun

1. The technique of playing a stringed instrument with a bow
2. The marking of the upbows and downbows

bowˈyer noun

1. A bowman
2. A maker of bows for archery

bowˈ-backed adjective

With bent back

bowˈbent adjective (Milton)

Bent like a bow

bowˈ-boy noun

1. A boy archer
2. Cupid (Shakespeare)

bowˈ-compasses plural noun

A small pair of compasses, often with a bow-shaped spring instead of a hinge

bowˈfin noun

A N American freshwater fish (genus Amia) of the order Holostei

bowˈ-fronted adjective

Having a convex front

bowˈ-hand noun

The hand in which the bow is held, normally in archery, the left, in stringed instrument-playing, the right

• blighters
• blighties
• blighting
• blightingly
• blightings
• blights
• blighty
• blimbing
• blimey
• blimp
• blimpish
• blimpishness
• blimpishnesses
• blimps
• blimy
• blin
• blind
• blindage
• blindages
• blind alley
• blind-alley
• blind alleys
• blind as a bat
• blind coal
• blind date