Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use bough in a sentence

20 example sentences · noun

Bough means a tree-branch, usually a primary one directly attached to the trunk. Example: “When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. (Rock-a-bye Baby)”

Examples of bough by meaning

nounA tree-branch, usually a primary one directly attached to the trunk.

  • When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. (Rock-a-bye Baby)
  • The green colour of the young snake is a protective garment, enabling it to lie concealed among the smaller green boughs.1913, W[illiam] P[lane] Pycraft, “Reptilian Liveries”, in The Infancy of Animals, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, pages...
  • A pair of birds settle on the bough above them, murmuring together, ready to roost.2013, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 18, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Vic.: The Text Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 172

More sentences with bough

  • The bough sprang back and hit us square in the face.From the entry spring back
  • We'll deck the halls with boughs of holly.From the entry holly
  • An oak whose boughs were mossed with age.From the entry moss
  • (Moving to the holly boughs.) Come on; let's finish Christmassing the place.1966, James Goldman, The Lion in Winter: A Comedy in Two Acts, New York, N.Y.; Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Samuel French, →OCLC, Act…. From the entry Christmas
  • With sceachs, boughs and bushes rubbing off me load, I wish the county council would trim along the road.2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh. From the entry sceach
  • He dragged a pruned bough over to the woodpile and started sectioning it into sticks and small loglets.2015, Michael Z. Williamson, A Long Time Until Now. From the entry loglet
  • The floor, the pews, the stripped-bare altar are strewn with leaves, twigs, orange needles from the blasty boughs of spruce trees.2010, Wayne Johnston, Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir. From the entry blasty
  • Up in the boughs, a literate London Tarzan.1971, William Samsom, “A Stroll in the Park”, in Réalités, numbers 242-247, page 65. From the entry parklife
  • He bent and disappeared out of the sheltering circle of the fir-fronds, returning in a moment with an armful of boughs.1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Three Go Back. From the entry breakwind
  • Hang above your Portals The shielding quicken bough!1917, Edward Harry William Meyerstein, Wilfrid Blair, Black and White Magic - Page 60. From the entry housen
  • I'd watch birds, trail my hands in the water, duck under the boughs of sweeper trees, and watch the river unspool before me.2012, Margie Crisp, River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado, page xi. From the entry unspool
  • Both of the two jays that had just moved flew out of the tree and alightened in the boughs of a nearby cedar.2002, Diana Hignutt, Moonsword, page 214. From the entry alighten
  • The pigeon rocked itself backwards and forwards on the bough, swelling out its breast feathers and laying its coralline beak upon them.1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 4, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC. From the entry coralline
  • Presently he was beside her again, and began to construct the break-wind, interweaving from the ground up to the fir-fronds a wall of boughs.1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Three Go Back. From the entry breakwind
  • The prettily decoratable tables of refreshments were embowered in tall leafy boughs, giving the appearance of a forest and amid this greenry lights were sending out a crimson glow.1910 November, “Club Column. The Saturday Club.”, in The Home Record, volume XXXIX, number 11, Leavenworth, Kan.. From the entry decoratable
  • A huge cherry-tree grew outside, so close that its boughs tapped against the house, and it was so thick-set with blossoms that hardly a leaf was to be seen.1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 4, in Anne of Green Gables. From the entry thickset
  • They formed the boundary lines or marks between adjoining parishes, and when the bounds were beaten the parson was wont to deliver his homily beneath the shady boughs.1900, George Morley, “Gospel Oaks”, in Shakespeare's Greenwood: The Customs of the Country: The Language; the Superstitions; the Customs…. From the entry greenwood

Meaning of bough

  1. noun A tree-branch, usually a primary one directly attached to the trunk.
  2. noun A gallows.

Full definition of bough

Questions about bough in a sentence

How do you use bough in a sentence?
Bough is used as a noun. For example: “When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. (Rock-a-bye Baby)”
What is a short sentence with bough?
“An oak whose boughs were mossed with age.”
What does bough mean?
Bough means a tree-branch, usually a primary one directly attached to the trunk.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bough (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use bough in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/bough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.