Search the Dictionary

n blood; thin broth; thin air. Shak. In the day, when the air is more thin. Bacon. Satan, bowing low His gray dissimulation, disappeared, Into thin air diffused. Milton.

certain whirling motion of the arm, to throw a ball; -- distinguished from to toss, or to bowl.

A ball bowled to strike the ground about a bat's length in front of the wicket.

The stalk, or handle, of a crossbow; also, sometimes, the bow itself. [Obs.] You can shoot in a tiller. Beau. & Fl.

To strike slightly; to tap. A third rogue tips me by the elbow. Swift.

eing drawn out when a whale, shark, or other animal, is harpooned. -- Toggle joint, an elbow or knee joint, consisting of two bars so connected that they may be brought quite or nearly into a straight line, and made to produce great endwise pressure, when any force is applied to bring them into this position.…

upposed to represent or indicate another thing or an event; a sign; a symbol; as, the rainbow is a token of God's covenant established with Noah.

f two parts, or long shafts, jointed together at or near one end, or united by an elastic bow, used for handling things, especially hot coals or metals; -- often called a pair of tongs.

Tobacco left in the bottom of a pipe bowl; -- so called from its being often taken out and placed on top of the newly filled bowl. Also, a cigar stump. [Slang]

from the vessel's side to protect the torpedo until clear, but formerly sometimes in the bow. In submarine torpedo boats they are in the bow.

To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Obs.] The bow tortureth the string. Bacon.

n a fall; to vacillate; to be unsteady; to stagger; as,an old man totters with age. "As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence." Ps. lxii. 3.

Stiff; rigid; not flexible; stubborn; as, a tough bow. So tough a frame she could not bend. Dryden.

A gigantic extinct herbivorous mammal from South America, having teeth bent like a bow. It is the type of the order Toxodonta.

extensor of the forearm, arising by three heads and inserted into the olecranon at the elbow.

To send about; to circulate, as a vessel in drinking. Then doth she troll to the bowl. Gammer Gurton's Needle. Troll the brown bowl. Sir W. Scott.

r regiment. -- Trumpet marine (Mus.), a monochord, having a thick string, sounded with a bow, and stopped with the thumb so as to produce the harmonic tones; -- said to be the oldest bowed instrument known, and in form the archetype of all others. It probably owes its name to "its external resemblance to the large spe…

tained from the young leaves of a Brazilian palm (Astrocaryum vulgare), used for cordage, bowstrings, etc.; also, the plant yielding this fiber. Called also tecum, and tecum fiber.

(Naut.) A convex deck at the bow or stern of a vessel, so made to shed the seas quickly.

ick, harsh noise; to make the sound of a tense string pulled and suddenly let go; as, the bowstring twanged.