Word.ws English Dictionary

shot across the bows

shot across the bows is the alternative form of shot across the bow.

Meaning of shot across the bow

Noun

shot across the bow (plural shots across the bow)

  1. (idiomatic) A warning that negative consequences will be faced if something is carried out or allowed to continue.
    • President [Franklin] Pierce, like a great war ship, fired two shots across the bows of the Congress, to bring matters to.1856 March, “Monthly Summary. [United States.]”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, volume XLVIII, number 3, Philadelphia, Pa.: George R....
    Synonyms:
    warning shot

Forms of shot across the bows

pluralshots across the bows

Questions about shot across the bows

What is shot across the bows the alternative form of?
Shot across the bows is the alternative form of shot across the bow.

Words near shot across the bows in the dictionary

  1. Shostaks
  2. Shostka
  3. shot
  4. shot a rope
  5. shot across the bow
  6. shot across the bows
  7. shot an elephant with a BB gun
  8. shot around
  9. shot back
  10. shot blasting
  11. shot box

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shot across the bows (page history and authors); shot across the 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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