bow

1. (n) (archery) A weapon made of a curved piece of wood or other flexible material whose ends are connected by a string, used for shooting arrows. 2. (n) A curved bend in a rod or planar surface, or in a linear formation such as a river (see oxbow). 3. (n) (music) A rod with horsehair (or an artificial substitute) stretched between the ends, used for playing various stringed musical instruments. 4. (n) A stringed instrument (chordophone), consisting of a stick with a single taut cord stretched between the ends, most often played by plucking. 5. (n) A type of knot with two loops, used to tie together two cords such as shoelaces or apron strings, and frequently used as decoration, such as in gift-wrapping. 6. (n) Anything bent or curved, such as a rainbow. 7. (n) The U-shaped piece which goes around the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke. 8. (n) Either of the arms of a pair of spectacles, running from the side of the lens to behind the wearer's ear. 9. (n) Any instrument consisting of an elastic rod, with ends connected by a string, employed for giving reciprocating motion to a drill, or for preparing and arranging hair, fur, etc., used by hatters. 10. (n) (nautical) A crude sort of quadrant formerly used for taking the sun's altitude at sea. 11. (n) (saddlery) Two pieces of wood which form the arched forward part of a saddle tree. 12. (n) The part of a key that is not inserted into the lock and that is used to turn the key. 13. (n) Either of the two handles of a pair of scissors. 14. (v) To play music on (a stringed) instrument using a bow. 15. (v) (ergative) To bend or curve, particularly downward. 16. (v) (transitive, figurative) To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend or incline, figuratively; to humble or subdue. 17. (v) (intransitive) To bend oneself as a gesture of respect or deference. 18. (v) (transitive and intransitive) To debut. 19. (v) (intransitive) To defer (to something). 20. (v) (transitive) To give a direction, indication, or command to by bowing. 21. (n) A gesture, usually showing respect, made by inclining the head or bending forward at the waist; a reverence 22. (n) (nautical) The front of a boat or ship. 23. (n) (rowing) The rower that sits in the seat closest to the bow of the boat. 24. (v) about to 25. (n) A place name: 26. (n) A place in the United Kingdom 27. (n) A suburb of eastern London in the borough of Tower Hamlets, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ3782). 28. (n) A village and civil parish in Mid Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS7201). 29. (n) A hamlet in Ashprington parish, South Hams district, Devon (OS grid ref SX8156). 30. (n) A hamlet in Stanford in the Vale parish, Vale of White Horse district, Oxfordshire, England (OS grid ref SU3494). 31. (n) A place in the United States 32. (n) An unincorporated community in Cumberland County, Kentucky. 33. (n) A town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire. 34. (n) An unincorporated commmunity in Skagit County, Washington. 35. (n) A surname. 36. (n) Ellipsis of bow-wow [The sound of a dog barking.] 37. (v) Ellipsis of bow-wow [To make the sound of a dog, to bark, to bow-wow] 38. (n) Alternative form of bao; any of several Chinese buns and breads [Any of various types of steamed bread or bun used in Chinese cuisine] 39. (n) Obsolete spelling of bough. [A tree-branch, usually a primary one directly attached to the trunk.] 40. (n) Ellipsis of Bow Street [A street in London WC2, England, of Bow Street Runner fame (OS grid ref TQ3081).] 41. (n) Ellipsis of Bow Creek [A river in Greater London, England, which is the tidal part of the River Lea before it reaches the Thames.] 42. (n) (computational linguistics) Initialism of bag of words. [(computational linguistics) The collection of words from an unprocessed text without regard to grammar; a collection of word unigrams.] 43. (n) (computational linguistics) Alternative letter-case form of BOW.