bowed

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baʊd/
• Rhymes: -aʊd

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

bowed

1. simple past and past participle of bow

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /boʊd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bəʊd/
• Rhymes: -əʊd
• Homophone: bode

Verb

bowed

1. simple past and past participle of bow

Adjective

bowed (not comparable)

1. Having a bow (rod for playing stringed instruments).

   a bowed instrument

2. (in combination) Equipped with a bow (weapon).
   • 1875, Thomas Charles Baring, transl., Pindar in English Rhyme; Being an Attempt to Render the Epinikian Odes, with the Principal Remaining Fragments, of Pindar, into English Rhymed Verse, London: Henry S. King & Co., page 91:

     […] the deadly fight / At Sparta sing, that nigh / Kithairon’s heiglits was fought, whereby / The Persian host of bent-bowed archers came / To ruin; […]

   • 1927, Ye Sylvan Archer, page 19:

     Now some of our weak-bowed archers are using glass sights on their bows for 100-yard shooting.

   • 1963, James Michie, transl., The Odes of Horace: The Centennial Hymn, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., published 1965, →LCCN, pages 227–228:

     Apollo, augur, bright-bowed archer, well-loved / Music-master of the nine Muses, healer / Whose skill in medicine can ease the body’s / Ills and infirmities, / By thy affection for the Palatine altars / Prolong, we pray, the Roman State and Latium’s / Prosperity into future cycles, nobler / Eras, for evermore.

   • 1972, The Homeric Hymns and The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 56:

     Say, is He Zeus? or perhaps He’s the silver-bowed archer Apollo?

   • 1977, Margaret Cone, Richard Francis Gombrich, transl., The Perfect Generosity of Prince Vessantara: A Buddhist Epic, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 85:

     Let the strong-bowed archers draw their bows.

   • 2012, Bhikkhu Bodhi, transl., The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya, Boston: Wisdom Publications, →ISBN, page 435:

     My speed was like that of a light arrow easily shot by a firm-bowed archer—one trained, skillful, and experienced—across the shadow of a palmyra tree.

Derived terms

• bowed psaltery
• bowed dulcimer
• bowed guitar
• hair-bowed