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

bowˈhead noun

An Arctic right whale (Balaena mysticetus), with a large head and arched jaw

• shorter
• shortest
• shortfall
• shortfalls
• short for
• short fuse
• short fuses
• short game
• short games
• shortgown
• shortgowns
• shorthand
• short-handed
• shorthands
• short-haul
• short head
• short-head
• short-headed
• short-heading
• short-heads
• shorthold
• shorthorn
• shorthorns
• short hundredweight
• shortie