| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| akimbo |
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| SYLLABICATION: | a·kim·bo |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -k m b |
| ADVERB: | In or into a position in which the hands are on the hips and the elbows are bowed outward: children standing akimbo by the fence. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Placed in such a way as to have the hands on the hips and the elbows bowed outward: children standing with arms akimbo. 2. Being in a bent, bowed, or arched position: “There he remained, dead to the world, limbs akimbo, until we left” (Alex Shoumatoff). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English in kenebowe : in, in; see in1 + kenebowe ( kene-, of unknown meaning + bowe, bow, bend; see bow3).
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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