bowing

English

Pronunciation

• (bending at the waist): IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊɪŋ/

  • Audio (US) /ˈbaʊɪŋ/

    (file)

• (becoming bent; playing a string instrument):
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈboʊɪŋ/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊɪŋ/
  • Rhymes: -əʊɪŋ
• Hyphenation: bow‧ing

Verb

bowing

1. present participle and gerund of bow (all senses)

Noun

bowing (countable and uncountable, plural bowings)

1. The act of bending at the waist, as a sign of respect or greeting.

   The courtier had practiced his bowing.

   • 1789 May 27, [John Moore], “Buchanan’s Letter”, in Zeluco. Various Views of Human Nature, Taken from Life and Manners, Foreign and Domestic., volume II, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 240:

     But it is not in the appearance of the fields, or of the cities, nor in the cuſtoms or genius of the inhabitants, that the country where you reſide has the great advantage over this land of darkneſs, but in the important article of religion; which here conſiſts almoſt entirely of external ſhow and gewgawry, of bowings, courteſies, and various geſticulations, of fantaſtical dreſſes, proceſſions, and other idle ceremonials, […]

2. A bending.

   The heavy books caused a bowing in the shelf.

3. A technique for using the bow on a string instrument such as a violin.
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 461:

     The bowing arm, the fingers on the strings, and then the violin itself polished brown, and the soloist's chin pillowed on it.

Derived terms

• bowing and scraping

Derived terms

• bowingly

Translations

the act of bending as a sign of respect

• Maori: tungoutanga