🦵 Curved shape 🎻 Played with bow 🙏 Very humble

bowed

7.0

Played by pulling a curved stick across the strings of an instrument

adjective
/boʊd/

Specialized

: frotado

Unlike the guitar, the cello is typically bowed rather than plucked.

Examples

The composer specified that the section should switch from bowed to pizzicato.
She loves to hear the bowed strings in classical music.
The violinist chose a bowed passage to emphasize the melody.
The violin was bowed beautifully by the musician.
The composer specified that the section should switch from bowed to pizzicato during the performance.
The violinist chose a bowed passage to emphasize the melody in her solo.
Unlike the guitar, the cello is typically bowed to create rich, resonant tones.

Antonyms

plucked

Specialized

5.1

Sound made when someone pulls and releases strings with fingers or a pick

Idioms

bowed down

1 6.5

Very tired and weighed down by too much work or worry

Compounds

bowed stringed instrument

5.7

A string instrument played with a bow, like a violin

Surface Forms

bowed positive

Morphology

bowed = bow (transparent) = bow + ed

The adjective 'bowed' is transparently derived from the noun 'bow', indicating the action of using a bow on a stringed instrument.

Etymology

The word bowed meaning 'played with a bow' comes from the curved stick called a bow, like the 'bow' in 'bow and arrow', which you pull across the strings to make sound, so 'bowed' instruments are those played with that stick.