BOWING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bowing

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/bˈoʊɪŋ/ /bˈaʊɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Bowing n. (Mus.)

The act or art of managing the bow in playing on stringed instruments. "Bowing constitutes a principal part of the art of the violinist, the violist, etc."

In hatmaking, the act or process of separating and distributing the fur or hair by means of a bow, to prepare it for felting.

verb

Bow v. t. (past & past part. bowed; pres. part. bowing)

To cause to deviate from straightness; to bend; to inflect; to make crooked or curved. "We bow things the contrary way, to make them come to their natural straightness." "The whole nation bowed their necks to the worst kind of tyranny."

To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend, figuratively; to turn; to incline. "Adversities do more bow men's minds to religion." "Not to bow and bias their opinions."

To bend or incline, as the head or body, in token of respect, gratitude, assent, homage, or condescension. "They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him."

To cause to bend down; to prostrate; to depress; to crush; to subdue. "Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave."

To express by bowing; as, to bow one's thanks.

Bow v. i. (past & past part. bowed; pres. part. bowing)

To play (music) with a bow.

To manage the bow.

See images of 'Bowing'

Etymology of 'Bowing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bowing" Quotes from Famous Books

... many men than drink. They prefer gambling with their lives to gambling with their money. They have the gambler's faith in their lucky star. They are preoccupied with the vision of victory to the exclusion of all timid thoughts. They have a dramatic sense that sets them anticipatorily on a stage, bowing to the applause of the multitude. It is the applause, I fancy, rather than the peril itself, that entices them. The average boy who performs a deed of derring-do performs it before his admiring fellows. Even in so small a thing as ringing a bell and running away ...

— The Pleasures of Ignorance • Robert Lynd

... was spread out to view—rich landscapes and sloping meadows, clothed in green, waving their heavy burden in the morning breeze. The dew lay heavily upon the earth, and the thick foliage of the trees sparkled with the glittering dewdrops bowing ...

— Fostina Woodman, the Wonderful Adventurer • Avis A. (Burnham) Stanwood

... stood by the desk, and said eagerly, "Now, Aunty, I am ready," and fell to smiling and bowing with all the persuasiveness and elegance ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... of the suave, amused drawl, and looked upon a dark, slim young man of picturesque appearance. He was bowing to her with an obvious intention of overdoing it. Voice and manner had the habit of the South rather than of the West. A kind of indolent irony sat easily upon the swarthy face crowned with a ...

— Crooked Trails and Straight • William MacLeod Raine

... in command, and this being his first visit to the arsenal since his return from a tour round the world, he was received by the officials with manifestations of delight. We had another opportunity of seeing the bowing practice in its fullest development. The various foremen as they approached bowed three times almost to the ground, and in some cases they went first upon their knees and struck the floor three times with their foreheads. We were afterward informed that only a few years ago these would have added ...

— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie

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