Etymology
From Middle English browe, from Old English brū, from Proto-West Germanic *brāwu, from Proto-Germanic *brūwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”).
Compare Middle Irish brúad, Tocharian B pärwāne (“eyebrows”), Lithuanian bruvìs, Serbo-Croatian obrva, Russian бровь (brovʹ), Ancient Greek ὀφρύς (ophrús), Sanskrit भ्रू (bhrū)), Persian ابرو (abru, “eyebrow”), Khowar بروُ (bruú).
Noun
brow (plural brows)
- The ridge over the eyes; the eyebrow.
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:’Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, / Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream / That can entame my spirits to your worship.
c. 1763, Charles Churchill, The Ghost:And his arch’d brow, pulled o’er his eyes, / With solemn proof proclaims him wise.
- The first tine of an antler's beam.
- The forehead.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirr’d thee in thy sleep,
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
Like bubbles in a late-disturb’d stream, […]
1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:Mr. Banks’ panama hat was in one hand, while the other drew a handkerchief across his perspiring brow.
- The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill.
the brow of a precipice
- (mining) A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
- (figurative) Aspect; appearance.
- (nautical) The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
- (nautical) The hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp.
Translations
first tine of an antler's beam
- French: andouiller d’œil m, maître andouiller m, andouiller de massacre m
|
the projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill
the gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay
Translations to be checked
Verb
brow (third-person singular simple present brows, present participle browing, simple past and past participle browed)
- To bound or limit; to be at, or form, the edge of.
1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 19, lines 531–532:Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts / That brow this bottom glade.