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bough love

bough

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tree branch, especially a large or main branch.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cover over or shade with boughs.
  • noun An arm or branch of a tree.
  • noun The gallows.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of buff.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of bow.
  • An obsolete spelling of bo.
  • To strip of boughs.
  • To send out boughs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An arm or branch of a tree, esp. a large arm or main branch.
  • noun Archaic A gallows.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A firm branch of a tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of the larger branches of a tree

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English bōh; see bhāghu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old English bōg ("shoulder, bough"), from Proto-Germanic *bōguz (“upper arm, shoulder”) (compare German Bug ("shoulder, hock, joint")), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāǵʰus (“forearm, elbow”) (compare Ancient Greek πῆχυς (pēchys, "forearm"), Old Armenian բազուկ (bazuk, "arm, forearm, bough"), Persian بازو (bāzu, "upper arm"), Sanskrit बाहु (bahus, "arm")).

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Examples

  • The river swollen by autumnal rains, deluged the low lands, and Adrian in his favourite boat is employed in the dangerous pastime of plucking the topmost bough from a submerged oak.

    I.5 1826

  • moths being burgled dogs needing stitches canals making phone calls the bough breaking...

    Things of which I am scared - but I don't let on.... The List Writer 2008

  • moths being burgled dogs needing stitches canals making phone calls the bough breaking...

    Archive 2008-07-01 The List Writer 2008

  • Take these five words that all end in "ough." bough rhymes with cow cough rhymes with off rough rhymes with puff though rhymes with slow through rhymes with boo

    English, and how she is spoken 2008

  • Take these five words that all end in "ough." bough rhymes with cow cough rhymes with off rough rhymes with puff though rhymes with slow through rhymes with boo

    English, and how she is spoken 2008

  • He had been taken with that branch (which the lawyer preferred to call a bough) in his possession; but he said that he had found it broken off and lying on the ground, and had picked it up.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • Having ordered silence, he said that the bough should be my prize, if I vanquished {537} the Egyptian -- but that if he conquered me, he should kill me with a sword.

    The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints January, February, March Alban Butler

  • Some trees of this kind are entirely green, with the exception perhaps of a single bough, which is of a bright crimson or scarlet.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 46, August, 1861 Various

  • The bough was the hand that had struck them out of the darkness, had thrown her to the sod and killed her animal.

    The Way of the Wind Zoe Anderson Norris

  • He had been taken with that branch (which the lawyer preferred to call a bough) in his possession; but he said that he had found it broken off and lying on the ground, and had picked it up.

    Les Miserables, Volume I, Fantine 1862

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