Word.ws English Dictionary

take a bow

/ˈteɪk ə ˈbaʊ/

take a bow verb: to bow (gesture of deference).

Verb

take a bow (third-person singular simple present takes a bow, present participle taking a bow, simple past took a bow, past participle taken a bow)

  1. To bow (gesture of deference).
  2. (idiomatic) To accept praise, as performers in a theater at the end of their act.
  3. (idiomatic) To end a performance; to leave.
  4. (idiomatic, sarcastic) To take credit or blame for a particular outcome or circumstance.
    • The years we spent together were the worst years of my life. You can take a bow.

Antonyms of take a bow

Forms of take a bow

third-person singular presenttakes a bow
present participletaking a bow
pasttook a bow
past participletaken a bow

Questions about take a bow

What does take a bow mean?
Take a bow means to bow (gesture of deference).
What part of speech is take a bow?
Take a bow is a verb.
How do you pronounce take a bow?
Take a bow is pronounced /ˈteɪk ə ˈbaʊ/.
What is the past tense of take a bow?
The past tense of take a bow is took a bow.

Words near take a bow in the dictionary

  1. take a bead on
  2. take a beat
  3. take a Bex
  4. take a bite
  5. take a bite out of
  6. take a bow
  7. take a break
  8. take a breath
  9. take a breather
  10. take a bullet
  11. take a chair

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take a 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-take a bow.ogg.

Cite this entry: “take a bow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_a_bow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.