oxbow

[ oks-boh ]

/ ˈɒksˌboʊ /

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noun

a U-shaped piece of wood placed under and around the neck of an ox with its upper ends in the bar of the yoke.

Physical Geography, Geology.

a bow-shaped bend in a river, or the land embraced by it.
Also called oxbow lake . a bow-shaped lake formed in a former channel of a river.

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Origin of oxbow

Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; see origin at ox, bow²

Words nearby oxbow

oxaloacetic acid, oxalosuccinic acid, oxazepam, oxazine, oxblood, oxbow, oxbow chest, oxbow front, oxbow lake, Oxbridge, oxcart

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use oxbow in a sentence

During the year she spent in the great school, she made but one visit to Oxbow Village.
Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1887|Various
But just now they were all more interested in the people they found here at the Oxbow Bend and in what they were doing.
Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's|Laura Lee Hope
The smallest Bunker really had succeeded in getting everybody at Oxbow Bend very much stirred up.
Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's|Laura Lee Hope
The whole party at the Oxbow Bend was roused by this time, and men, women and children were looking for the little lost boy.
Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's|Laura Lee Hope

The chain is passed through the large iron ring in the oxbow and is doubled back to get the right length.
Farm Mechanics|Herbert A. Shearer

British Dictionary definitions for oxbow

oxbow

/ (ˈɒksˌbəʊ) /

noun

a U-shaped piece of wood fitted under and around the neck of a harnessed ox and attached to the yoke

Also called: oxbow lake, cutoff a small curved lake lying on the flood plain of a river and constituting the remnant of a former meander

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

Scientific definitions for oxbow

oxbow

[ ŏks′bō′ ]

A sharp, U-shaped bend in a river. The bend is so sharp that only a narrow neck of land is left between the two parts of the river.