Word.ws English Dictionary

bowing

Syllables: bow·ing/ˈbaʊɪŋ//ˈboʊɪŋ/

bowing is the present participle and gerund of bow.

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.
    • 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...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]...
  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.
    • The bowing arm, the fingers on the strings, and then the violin itself polished brown, and the soloist's chin pillowed on it.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 461

Meaning of bow

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

Forms of bowing

pluralbowings

Words formed from bowing

Phrases with bowing

Words that rhyme with bowing

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bowing

What does bowing mean?
Bowing means the act of bending at the waist, as a sign of respect or greeting.
What is bowing the present participle and gerund of?
Bowing is the present participle and gerund of bow.
What part of speech is bowing?
Bowing is a noun.
How do you pronounce bowing?
Bowing is pronounced /ˈbaʊɪŋ/.
What is the plural of bowing?
The plural of bowing is bowings.

Words near bowing in the dictionary

  1. Bowiean
  2. bowieite
  3. Bowieites
  4. bowies
  5. Bowiesque
  6. bowing
  7. bowing acquaintance
  8. bowing and scraping
  9. bowing down
  10. bowing down before the porcelain god
  11. bowing in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bowing (page history and authors); bow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bowing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bowing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.