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oxbow

[ oks-boh ]
/ ˈɒksˌboʊ /

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.
  1. a bow-shaped bend in a river, or the land embraced by it.
  2. 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

oxalosuccinic acid, oxaluria, 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. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for oxbow

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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.