Word.ws English Dictionary

bowsman

/ˈbaʊzmən/

bowsman noun: a sailor who works in the bow of a vessel.

Noun (1)

bowsman (plural bowsmen)

  1. A sailor who works in the bow of a vessel.
    • Being the savage's bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar in his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale's back.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Monkey-Rope”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, pages 355–356

Noun (2)

IPA/ˈbəʊzmən/

bowsman (plural bowsmen)

  1. An archer.
    • Whether from natural ailment, or disease engendered by the place he dwelt in, his strength had for many months past ebbed away, till at last he could no longer take his axe from the ingle nook, nor his bow from its crocks over the chimney. The best axeman and best bowsman on Avon side had become...1864, Diary of George Dern; or, Jottings of a Year of Middle Life, London: T[homas] Cautley Newby, […], page 75
    • The Des Moines archery club returned from Chicago a few weeks ago laden with trophies won in a contest with the Chicago bowsmen and bowswomen.1879 September 24, S. S. B., “Letter from Iowa”, in Burlington Free Press & Times, volume 34, number 87, Burlington, Vt., published 6 October 1879, page [2], column 3

Examples of bowsman in a sentence

  • The best axeman and best bowsman on Avon side had become helpless as a puling infant.1864, Diary of George Dern; or, Jottings of a Year of Middle Life, London: T[homas] Cautley Newby, […], page 75:
  • While the musketeer will load and fire once, the bowsman will discharge a dozen arrows, and that, at a distance under fifty yards, with an accuracy nearly equal to the rifle.[…]”1953, Mary Jourdan Atkinson, The Texas Indians, Naylor Company, page 194:
  • Basavarāja has given some tips to the bowsman so that his aim will not miss the target.1995, Radha Krishnamurthy, Sivatattva Ratnakara of Keladi Basavaraja: A Cultural Study, Keladi Museum and Historical Research Bureau, page...
  • Each hunter carried about fifty arrows and an expert bowsman could launch them so fast that a shot arrow was still in the air while the next was being released.1997, John W. Friesen, Rediscovering the First Nations of Canada, Detselig Enterprises, →ISBN, page 100:

Forms of bowsman

pluralbowsmen
alternative formbowman

Origin of bowsman

From bow (“front of vessel”) + -s- + man.

From bow (“weapon for shooting arrows”) + -s- + man.

Questions about bowsman

What does bowsman mean?
Bowsman means a sailor who works in the bow of a vessel.
How do you use bowsman in a sentence?
The best axeman and best bowsman on Avon side had become helpless as a puling infant.
What part of speech is bowsman?
Bowsman is a noun.
How do you pronounce bowsman?
Bowsman is pronounced /ˈbaʊzmən/.
What is the plural of bowsman?
The plural of bowsman is bowsmen.

Words near bowsman in the dictionary

  1. bowsing
  2. bowsing ken
  3. bowsing kens
  4. bowsing-ken
  5. bowsing-kens
  6. bowsman
  7. bowsmen
  8. bowsmith
  9. bowsmiths
  10. bowspring
  11. bowsprit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bowsman (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-bowsman.wav.

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