Forms: 1 earh, 1–5 arwe, arewe, 3 earewe, harewe, 4 aro, aru, arw, arraw, aruwe, 4–6 arow(e, 6–7 arrowe, 6–9 arrow. Pl. -s; 1 -an, 2–3 -en, 3–7 -es. [OE. had two cognate forms, earh for arh:—OTeut. arhwo- neuter, and arwe for arhwe:—*arhwôn weak fem.; akin to ON. ör, örvar:—*arhwâ str. fem., and Goth. arhwazna from arhw (cf. hlaiwasna ‘grave,’ from hlaiw); prob. ‘the thing belonging to the bow,’ arhw being cognate with L. arqu-us, arc-us, bow. (Cf. OHG. fingiri:—*fingrio- the thing belonging to the finger, ring, f. fingar.) A rare word in OE. the ordinary terms being strǽl, and flá, flán, of which the former disappeared after 1200, the latter occurred in Scotch after 1500. But arrow was the ordinary prose word after 1000.]
I. A missile.
1. A slender pointed missile shot from a bow, usually feathered and barbed. Sometimes also applied to the bolts, or quarrels, with thickened heads, discharged from the cross-bow.
a. 835. Egbert’s Penit. Laws, IV. § 28. Gif hwylc man mid arwan deor ofsceóte.
a. 1000. Andreas (Gr.), 1333. Earh áttre ʓemæl.
1083. O. E. Chron., On þære rode sticodon on mæniʓe arewan.
c. 1205. Lay., 2476. On arwe him com to heorte.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 98 (MS. C). Þach hit reine arewen, ich habe a nede erende.
1297. R. Glouc., 48. Myd arwen & myd quareles so muche folke … me slow.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10036. Þe berbikans … wel tas kepe to þat castell, For aro [v.r. arw], scott, and for quarel.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 104. A shef of pocock arwes brighte and kene.
c. 1530. R. Hilles, Commonpl. Bk. (1858), 140 (Proverb). Thys arrow comyth never owt of thyn ownne bow.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, I. i. 3. A vollie of musket … goeth with more terrour … then doth your vollie of arrowes.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. xx. 20. I will shoot three arrowes … as though I shot at a marke.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, xxxix. Like an arrow swift he flew Shot by an archer strong.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., III. 165. from an oak-bough made the arrows, Tipped with flint, and winged with feathers.
b. fig.
c. 1230. Ancr. R., 60. Erest heo scheot þe earewen of þe liht eien.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerkes T., 1147. The arwes of thy crabbed eloquence.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., 335. Thou shalt smyte hym with the arowe of penaunce.
1596. Bp. Barlow, Three Serm., ii. 59. By the Arrowes of Famine, he meaneth the Canker and Palmer wormes.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. i. 58. The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 941. Love’s arrows are but shot at rovers, Tho’ all they hit they turn to lovers.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 144, ¶ 3. A mark to the arrows of lurking calumny.
1854. B. Taylor, Hassan, 291, Poems of Orient (1866), 101. Slain by the arrows of her beauteous eyes.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., IV. xii. 355. The arrow of conviction rankling in their conscience.
c. With qualifications: Broad Arrow: see III. below. Elf-arrow: see ARROW-HEAD 1 b. Fire-arrow: one which carried some burning substance so as to set fire to thatch, sails, etc. Musket-arrow: one fired from a musket or other fire-arm.
1692. in Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., II. xxxi. 137. To make Darts or Fire-Arrows.
1819. Pantologia, s.v. Arrow, Fire-Arrows were first used in war by the Persians under Xerxes.
1721. Bailey, Elf-arrows, Flint-stones sharpened and jagged like Arrow-heads, used in War by the ancient Britons.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Elf-arrows, a name given by the people of Scotland, to certain stone weapons which they find, and which had been in use before tools and weapons of iron were used there.
1603. Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrol., xi. 254. He taketh his words to be musket arrowes … and his breath gunpowder.
2. in Surveying, Straight sticks shod with iron (originally real arrows), or iron pins, used to stick in the ground at the end of each chain.
[1571. Digges, Pantom., F b. Whatsoeuer you mete the space G E withall, whether it be halberd, bill, arrow or staffe.]
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Surveying, He ought likewise to have ten arrows, or small strait sticks, near two feet long, shod with iron ferrils…. The leader sticks one of the ten arrows in the ground at the far end of the chain.
1883. Mod. Price List. Arrows, made from No. 11 Steel Wire, the set of ten Arrows … 2s. 6d.
3. A representation or figure of the missile: a. gen. Any arrow-shaped index, pin or ornament.
Mod. The spire is surmounted by an arrow. She wore a silver arrow in her hair, etc.
b. in Cartography, A mark like an arrow, or arrow-head, used to point out the course or direction of a river, road, railway, etc.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 156/1. The direction of the earth’s motion represented by the arrow.
1882. Everett, Deschanel’s Nat. Phil., 6. If the directions of all three arrows are reversed, the forces will still be in equilibrium.
4. Astr. A small constellation of the Northern Hemisphere, Sagitta.
1727–51. in Chambers, Cycl.
1868. Lockyer, Heavens, 328. The Fox, the Arrow, the Dolphin … contain no remarkable star.
II. Things resembling an arrow.
† 5. fig. The penis. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxvi. 15 (see margin). So later vers.
† 6. Geom. The sagitta, or versed sine of an arc.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., II. 10. Sinus versus … is also called in Latine Sagitta; in English a Shaft or Arrow, for the Demonstrative figure therof … is not unlike to the string of a bow ready bent, having a Shaft in the middest thereof.
1751. in Chambers, Cycl.
7. The leading shoot of a plant or tree.
† a. The main young shoot of a vine or other tree, or, that which in pruning is left to run up and form the main stem. (Perh. only transl. L. sagitta.) Obs.
1580. Baret, Alv., A 568. Arrow, the longest twigge that is left in the vine when it is cut.
1745. trans. Columella’s Husb., III. xvii. Rustics call the utmost or last part of the shoot the Arrow.
b. The flowering stem of the sugar-cane.
1779. Phil. Trans., LXIX. 278. All canes have not arrows, and the coming out of an arrow depends on the season, and not on the age of the cane.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xix. (1859), 533. The cane-fields then in arrow.
1870. Kingsley, in Gd. Words, 1 June, 382/1. More handsome still … when the ‘arrow,’ as the flower is called, spreads over the cane-piece a purple haze.
8. in Fortification (see quot.).
1816. C. James, Mil. Dict. (ed. 4), 247. Arrow is a work placed at the salient angle of the glacis, and consists of two parapets, each above 40 fathoms long; this work has a communication with the covert-way, of about 24 or 28 feet broad, called caponnière, with a ditch before it of about 5 or 6 fathom, and a traverse at the entrance, of 3 fathom thick, and a passage of 6 or 8 feet round it. [Cf. ARROW-HEADED 1.]
III. Broad Arrow.
9. lit. One having a broad arrow-head (see ARROW-HEAD), used for cleaving.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XX. 116 (Wright). He bar a bowe in his hand, and manye brode arewes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Brood arowe (v.r. brodarwe), Catapulta.
c. 1490. Adam Bel, 613, in Ritson, Anc. P. Poetry, 28. I myselfe with a brode arow Shall cleue the apple in two.
1530. Palsgr., 201/2. Broode arrowe, rallion.
1611. Cotgr., Rallion, an arrow with a forked or barbed head; a broad arrow.
10. For Broad Arrow-head: The arrow-head-shaped mark, used by the British Board of Ordnance, and placed upon government stores. In Her. = PHEON, which is properly a broad-arrow with the inner edge of the barbs indented.
1551. Grant of arms to John Cooke (20 Feb., 6 Edw. VI.). Brode arrowes.
1687. Charter of James II. to Tower of Lond. Upon all which Boundary houses, His Majesty’s Mark, the Broad Arrow, by his late Majesty’s special command, have been set up.
1698. Act 9 & 10 Will. III., xli. Or any other Stores [marked] with the Broad Arrow.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., vi. The same rude resemblance … which certain talismanic scratches, well known to our revenue officers, bear to a broad arrow.
1839–44. Tupper, Prov. Phil. (1862), 128. The broad arrow of the Great King, carved on all the stores of his Arsenal.
1865. Times, 13 Feb., 10/3. If the broad arrow be found on any stores in Confederate hands, it will be found that they were condemned and sold, or that the mark is forged.
IV. Combinations.
1. General relations: a. objective, as arrow-bearing, -maker; b. instrumental, as arrow-smitten; c. parasynthetic, as arrow-leaved, -shaped; d. attributive, as arrow-flight, -point, -range, -wound.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., lii. Woggarwolfe’s arrow-bearing page. Ibid. (1808), Marm., VI. xxvi. Fell England’s arrow-flight like rain.
1880. Gray, Bot. Text-Bk., 397. The Arrow-leaved Polygonum.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., i. § 4 (1689), 4. Let the Arrow-maker divide this with a Saw.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Arrow-makers are called fletchers.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., X. 83. At the doorway of his wigwam Sat the ancient arrow-maker.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xxi. (1879), 262. Out of arrow-range! Slip the dogs, Syphax!
1870. Bryant, Homer, I. VIII. 262. An arrow-wound or gash of spear, Given as he leaps on board.
2. Special combinations: arrow-case, a quiver, also fig.; arrow-finger, the fore-finger; † arrow-girdle, a girdle in which arrows were carried; arrowless a., without arrows; arrow-like a. and adv., like an arrow; arrow-loop, arrow-slit, a narrow loop-hole or slit for shooting through; arrow-plant (see quot.); arrow-shot, the shooting of an arrow; also, the distance to which an arrow is shot, a bow-shot; arrow-smith, a maker of iron arrow-heads; arrow-snake, or javelin-snake, a species of snake (Acontias jaculus) so called from the spring with which it darts forward; arrow-stitch, the triangular set of stitches with which the ends of whalebone in stays are sometimes secured; arrow-stone (obs. or dial.), a belemnite; arrow-wise adv., after the manner of an arrow.
1388. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxvi. 15. And schal opene the *arowe caas aȝens eche arowe.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. VIII. 13. On hir schuldir the arrow caice bare sche.
1578. Lanc. Wills (1857), II. 60. An arrowe case of strawe with locke and kay.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., ix. 256. You must call the forefinger the *‘arrow’-finger.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxvii. 11. Pigmeis … hangiden her *arew girdlis [1388 arowe casis] in thi wallis.
1830. Liverpool Merc., 17 Sept., 7/4. They went forward with *arrow-like swiftness.
1881. G. Stables, in Boy’s Own P., 8 Oct., 22. Plunging arrow-like into the watery ravines.
1840. Browning, Sordello, V. 429. She … thrid somehow, by some glimpse of *arrow-loop, The turnings to the galleries below.
1779. T. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 156. On cutting an *arrow-plant (a species of pine), I found fresh water drop from it.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xii. 27. Wythin ane *arrow schot on athir syde.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, III. 79. Attending the cure of his Wound without *Arrow-shot.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. Introd. 1. Tyrrell’s arrow-shot.
1870. F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 92. The lower storey lighted only by an *arrow-slit.
1878. Smiles, Robt. Dick, iv. 31. Perforated here and there with arrow-slits.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, V. 1588. Armurers and *Arowsmythis.
1618. Pulton, Coll. Stat. 7 Hen. IV., vii. Because the arrow smithes doe make many faultie heads for arrowes and quarrels.
1611. Bible, Gen. xlix. 17. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder [marg. *arrowsnake] in the path.
1833. Penny Cycl., I. 88/2. The Hebrew denomination Kippoz [Isa. xxxiv. 15] … which the learned Bochart … has shown to refer more properly to the acontias or anguis jaculus, the arrow or dart-snake of the Greeks and Romans.
