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longbow

American  
[lawng-boh, long-] / ˈlɔŋˌboʊ, ˈlɒŋ- /

noun

  1. a large bow drawn by hand, as that used by English archers from the 12th to the 16th centuries.


idioms

  1. draw the longbow, to exaggerate in telling stories; overstate something.

    He's sure to draw the longbow on the size of his catch of fish.

longbow British  
/ ˈlɒŋˌbəʊ /

noun

  1. a large powerful hand-drawn bow, esp as used in medieval England

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of longbow

First recorded in 1490–1500; long 1 + bow 2

Vocabulary lists containing longbow

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Elsewhere in the suburbs at the Akrams’ family home, police would find a homemade wooden firearm, a longbow with 12 arrows, and a copy of the Quran with passages highlighted, again unspecified.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 22, 2025

Thomas broached a long list of historical figures, including the English King Henry VIII, who the ruling says worried that the advent of handguns threatened his subjects’ proficiency with the longbow.

From Seattle Times Jun. 25, 2022

One thinks of the longbow used by the English archers at Agincourt in the Middle Ages or the heavily armoured tanks that epitomised the ground combat of World War Two.

From BBC Feb. 4, 2022

The Iceman’s survival gear included a longbow of yew, a quiver of arrows, a copper ax and a kind of crude first-aid kit full of plants with powerful pharmacological properties.

From New York Times Nov. 2, 2021

Even for a crack shot, an unrifled, early seventeenth-century gun had fewer advantages over a longbow than may be supposed.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

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