Word.ws English Dictionary

draws the long bow

draws the long bow is the third-person singular simple present indicative of draw the long bow.

Meaning of draw the long bow

Verb

draw the long bow (third-person singular simple present draws the long bow, present participle drawing the long bow, simple past drew the long bow, past participle drawn the long bow)

  1. (idiomatic) To exaggerate; to tell tall tales.
    • […] Dublin residents, like those jarvies waiting news from abroad, would tempt any ancient mariner who sailed the ocean seas to draw the long bow about the schooner Hesperus and etcetera.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 16

Questions about draws the long bow

What is draws the long bow the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Draws the long bow is the third-person singular simple present indicative of draw the long bow.

Words near draws the long bow in the dictionary

  1. draws out
  2. draws rein
  3. draws stumps
  4. draws the cloth
  5. draws the line
  6. draws the long bow
  7. draws the short straw
  8. draws through
  9. draws to a close
  10. draws to an end
  11. draws together

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: draws the long bow (page history and authors); draw the long 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “draws the long bow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/draws_the_long_bow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.