| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bow2 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  bou |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: bowed, bow·ing, bows
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To bend or curve downward; stoop. 2. To incline the body or head or bend the knee in greeting, consent, courtesy, acknowledgment, submission, or veneration. 3. To yield in defeat or out of courtesy; submit. See synonyms at yield. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To bend (the head, knee, or body) to express greeting, consent, courtesy, acknowledgment, submission, or veneration. 2. To convey (greeting, for example) by bending the body. 3. To escort deferentially: bowed us into the restaurant. 4. To cause to acquiesce; submit. 5. To overburden: Grief bowed them down. | | NOUN: | An inclination of the head or body, as in greeting, consent, courtesy, acknowledgment, submission, or veneration. | | PHRASAL VERB: | bow out To remove oneself; withdraw. | | IDIOM: | bow and scrape To behave obsequiously. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bowen, from Old English b gan. See bheug- in Appendix I.
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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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