Dictionary

unbow en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ʌnˈbəʊ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ʌnˈboʊ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From un- + bow.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To unbend (something).
   • As in little pieces of wood naturally bow'd like a Man's Elbow, the Carver doth not unbow it, but carves an hand at the one end of it, and shapes it into the compleat figure of a Mans Arm. 1653, Henry More, An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC:
   • Richard [I of England] was well ſtored with men, the bones; and quickly got money, the ſinews of warre; by a thouſand Princely skills gathering ſo much coin as if he meant not to return, becauſe looking back would unbowe his reſolution 1639, Thomas Fuller, “Richard of England and Philip of France Set Forward to the Holy Land; the Danger of the Interveiws of Princes”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book III, page 118:

Forms