Word.ws English Dictionary

bowline

/ˈbəʊlɪn/US/ˈboʊlɪn/

bowline noun: a rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails.

bowline: a rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails
Image: Lucasbosch, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bowline (plural bowlines)

  1. A rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails.
  2. A knot tied so as to produce an eye or loop in the end of a rope that will not slip or jam.

Forms of bowline

pluralbowlines

Origin of bowline

From Middle English bouline, bawelyne.

Words formed from bowline

  • bowline bridle
  • bowlined
  • on a bowline
  • running bowline

Questions about bowline

What does bowline mean?
Bowline means a rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails.
What part of speech is bowline?
Bowline is a noun.
How do you pronounce bowline?
Bowline is pronounced /ˈbəʊlɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of bowline?
The plural of bowline is bowlines.

Words near bowline in the dictionary

  1. bowlfulls
  2. bowlfuls
  3. bowlike
  4. Bowlin
  5. bowlin'
  6. bowline
  7. bowlined
  8. bowlines
  9. bowling
  10. bowling a googly
  11. bowling alley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bowline (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bowline.wav.

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