Word.ws English Dictionary

taken a bow

taken a bow is the past participle of take a bow.

Meaning of take a bow

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.

Questions about taken a bow

What is taken a bow the past participle of?
Taken a bow is the past participle of take a bow.

Words near taken a bow in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taken a bow (page history and authors); 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.

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