broad arrows

Noun

broad arrow (plural broad arrows)

1. (A stylized representation of) a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point; used traditionally in heraldry, and later by the British government to mark government property and convict uniforms.
   • Their boats were manned by convicts, dressed in prison clothing, freely decorated with numbers and emblazoned all over with the ominous broad arrow.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 197

   Synonyms:

   broad arrowhead, broadhead

2. (historical) An arrow fitted with this arrowhead.
   • It was his ill fate, to be a ſleepe, as old Abbas was going a hunting within the path, the King ſaw him not, but his pamperd horſe ſlartled at him, whereat immediatly the King ſent a broad Arrow into the poore mans heart, and ere all his followers had paſt, the man was kild a hundred times ouer, if...1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “The Ambassadours entertainment by the King of Persia”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William...