Word.ws English Dictionary

drew the long bow

drew the long bow is the simple past 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 drew the long bow

What is drew the long bow the simple past of?
Drew the long bow is the simple past of draw the long bow.

Words near drew the long bow in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drew 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.

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