bow1
verb/baʊ/
/baʊ/
Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they bow | /baʊ/ /baʊ/ |
| he / she / it bows | /baʊz/ /baʊz/ |
| past simple bowed | /baʊd/ /baʊd/ |
| past participle bowed | /baʊd/ /baʊd/ |
| -ing form bowing | /ˈbaʊɪŋ/ /ˈbaʊɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] to move your head or the top half of your body forwards and downwards as a sign of respect or to say hello or goodbye
- bow (to/before somebody/something) He bowed low to the assembled crowd.
- bow down (to/before somebody/something) The people all bowed down before the emperor.
Extra Examples- He swept off his hat and bowed deeply to the queen.
- The emperor's subjects bowed down before him.
- The pianist stood up and bowed to the audience.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- deeply
- low
- slightly
- …
- before
- to
- [transitive] bow your head to move your head forwards and downwards
- She bowed her head in shame.
- They stood in silence with their heads bowed.
- [intransitive, transitive] to bend or make something bend
- (+ adv./prep) The pines bowed in the wind.
- bow something (+ adv./prep) Their backs were bowed under the weight of their packs.
Word OriginOld English būgan ‘bend, stoop’, of Germanic origin; related to German biegen, also to bow2. Bow of a boat/ship is late Middle English: from Low German boog, Dutch boeg, ‘shoulder or ship's bow’; related to bough.
Idioms
See bow in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybow and scrape
- (disapproving) to be too polite to an important person in order to gain their approval
- She was beginning to tire of all their bowing and scraping.
Check pronunciation:
bow1