- a weapon used for shooting arrows, consisting of a long curved piece of wood or metal with a tight string joining its ends
- He was armed with a bow and arrow.
- She drew and aimed her bow.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + bow- be armed with
- carry
- have
- …
- a bow and arrow
- a knot with two loops and two loose ends which is used for decoration on clothes, in hair, etc. or for tying shoes
- to tie your shoelaces in a bow
- Her hair was tied back in a neat bow.
- a dress decorated with bows and ribbons
Extra ExamplesTopics Clothes and Fashionc1- Can you tie a bow?
- She tied the ribbon into a neat bow.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- neat
- double
- tie (something into)
- a long thin piece of wood with thin string stretched along it, used for playing musical instruments such as the violin
- She drew the bow across the strings.
Word OriginOld English boga ‘bend, bow, arch’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch boog and German Bogen, also to bow1.
Idioms
See bow in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee bow in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishhave another string/more strings to your bow
- (British English) to have more than one skill or plan that you can use if you need to
- The exhibition shows that he has other strings to his artistic bow.
Check pronunciation:
bow2