bowing

Pluralbowings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The bending of the upper body forward at the waist, done as a greeting or as a mark of respect.

   In many cultures, bowing remains the standard greeting between strangers.

   A round of bowing followed each introduction at the formal dinner.

   Similarobeisance

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bow.

   The dancers were bowing in unison as the curtain fell.

   Bowing repeatedly, the servant backed out of the room.

   Note

   One -ing form serves every verb behind it: a dancer bowing to the audience, a shelf bowing under its load, a cellist bowing a phrase. After a form of be it builds the progressive (they were bowing). On its own it can open a clause (Bowing repeatedly, he left). Once it becomes a true noun it takes an article and a plural, bowings, as with the violinist's technique.

3. 3
   SayBOH-ingUS/ˈboʊɪŋ/UK/ˈbəʊɪŋ/

   noununcountable

   The technique a musician uses to move a bow across the strings of a violin or similar instrument.

   The violinist's bowing gave the melody a warm, singing quality.

   Teachers often correct a beginner's bowing before anything else.

   Note

   A string player's word for everything the right hand does with the bow. Its speed, pressure and point of contact shape articulation, dynamics and tone. It also works as a modifier: Anthony Burgess, in Beds in the East (1959), sets "the bowing arm" beside "the fingers on the strings." As a countable noun it names one particular way of playing a passage, so a single phrase can have several possible bowings.

4. 4
   SayBOH-ingUS/ˈboʊɪŋ/UK/ˈbəʊɪŋ/

   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or process of bending, or the curved shape that results.

   The bowing of the wooden beams worried the building inspectors.

   Years of steady pressure had produced a visible bowing in the wall.

   Similarbending, warping, buckling, curvature, sagging

   Oppositestraightening

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