Bovril, bov′ril, n. a registered trade-mark applied to a special meat extract. [Coined from Gr. bous, bovis, an ox, and vril, the electric fluid represented as the one common origin of the forces in matter, in Lytton's novel The Coming Race, 1871.]
Bow, bow, v.i. to bend the body in saluting a person, acknowledging a compliment, &c.: to submit.—v.t. to bend or incline downwards, to crush down (with down, to, in or out, up or down).—n. a bending of the body in saluting a person.—adj. Bow′-backed, crook-backed.—A bowing acquaintance, a slight acquaintance.—To make one's bow, to retire ceremoniously, to leave the stage. [A.S. búgan, to bend; akin to L. fug-ĕre, to flee, to yield.]
Bow, bō, n. a piece of elastic wood or other material for shooting arrows, bent by means of a string stretched between its two ends: anything of a bent or curved shape, as the rainbow: the instrument by which the strings of a violin are sounded: a ring of metal forming a handle: a knot composed of one or of two loops and two ends (single bow, double bow), a looped knot of ribbons, a necktie or the like, so tied.—adj. Bow′bent (Milton), bent like a bow.—n. Bow′-boy, a boy archer: (Shak.) Cupid.—n.pl. Bow′-com′passes, compasses, one leg of which slides on a bow or curved plate of metal to steady its motion: a small pair of compasses for describing circles with ink or pencil.—adj. Bowed.—ns. Bow′-hand, in archery, the left hand, the one by which the bow is held: (mus.) the right hand, the one that draws the bow; Bow′-leg, a leg crooked like a bow.—adj. Bow′-legged, having crooked legs.—ns. Bow′line, a rope from the weather side of the square sails (to which it is fastened by bridles) to the larboard or starboard bow, to keep the sail close to the wind; Bow′man, an archer; Bow′shot, the distance to which an arrow can be shot from a bow; Bow′string, the string by which a bow is drawn: a string with which the Turks strangled offenders; Bow′-win′dow, a bent or semicircular window.—adj. Bow′-win′dowed (slang), pot-bellied.—n. Bow′yer (obs.), a bowman: a maker of bows.—Bowline knot, a simple but secure knot, used in fastening the bowline bridles to the cringles.—On the bow hand, wide of the mark.—To draw the long bow, to make extravagant statements; To have two (or more) strings to one's bow, to have other alternatives. [A.S. boga; cog. with Ger. bogen.]
Bow, bow, n. the general name for the stem and forepart of a ship, or that which cuts the water—often used in pl., the ship being considered to have starboard and port bows, meeting at the stem.—ns. Bow′er, Bow′er-anch′or, an anchor at the bow or forepart of a ship—usually two, the best-bower and the small-bower; Bow′-oar, the oar nearest the bow.—A bold, or bluff, bow, a broad bow; A lean bow, a narrow one.—On the bow, within 45° of the point right ahead.
Bowdlerise, bowd′lėr-īz, v.t. to expurgate a book or writing, to remove indelicate words or phrases, esp. to do so unnecessarily.—ns. Bowdlerisā′tion; Bowd′leriser; Bowd′lerism. [From Dr T. Bowdler (1754-1825), who published an expurgated Shakespeare in ten volumes in 1818.]
Bowels, bow′elz, n.pl. the interior parts of the body, the entrails, the intestines: the interior part of anything: (fig.) the heart, pity, tenderness (the emotions being supposed to be seated in the bowels—B. and Shak.).—v.t. Bow′el, to take out the bowels. [O. Fr. boel—L. botellus, a sausage, also an intestine.]
Bower, bow′ėr, n. a shady enclosure or recess in a garden, an arbour: an inner apartment, esp. the private room of a lady, a boudoir.—n. Bow′er-bird, an Australian bird of the Starling family, remarkable for its habit of making bower-like erections ornamented with gay feathers, shells, &c.—adj. Bow′ery, containing bowers: shady. [A.S. búr, a chamber; Scot, byre—root A.S. búan, to dwell.]
Bower, bow′ėr, n. the name in euchre for the two highest cards, the knave of trumps, and the other knave of the same colour, the right and left bower respectively. [Ger. bauer, peasant.]
Bowie-knife, bō′i-nīf, n. a dagger-knife with a blade about twelve inches long, carried in the southern states of America—so named from its inventor, Colonel Bowie.