bowes

Verb (1)

bow (third-person singular simple present bows, present participle bowing, simple past and past participle bowed)

1. To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow.
   • The musician bowed his violin expertly.
2. (ergative) To bend or curve, particularly downward.
   • The shelf bowed under the weight of the books.
3. (figuratively, transitive) To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend or incline, figuratively; to humble or subdue.
   • Adversities do more bow men's minds to religion.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Atheism”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

Verb (2)

bow (third-person singular simple present bows, present participle bowing, simple past and past participle bowed)

1. (intransitive) To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference.
   • The soldier now blew upon a green whistle, and at once a young girl, dressed in a pretty green silk gown, entered the room. She had lovely green hair and green eyes, and she bowed low before Dorothy as she said, "Follow me and I will show you your room."1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC
2. (intransitive, transitive) To debut.
   • The show bowed in the first week of December, 1951. Dinah was ready, and so were the technicians who put on her makeup […]1979, Bruce Cassiday, Dinah!: A Biography, page 115
3. (intransitive) To defer (to something).
   • I bow to your better judgement in the matter.

See all 33 meanings of bow