bowsman
English
Alternative forms
- bowman
Etymology
From bow + -s- + man.
Noun
bowsman (plural bowsmen)
- (nautical) A sailor who works in the bow of a vessel.
- 1851, Herman Melville, chapter 72, in Moby Dick:
- “Being the savage's bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar in his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale's back."
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- An archer.
- 1953, Mary Jourdan Atkinson, The Texas Indians, Naylor Company, page 194:
- Gregg says: “There is hardly any more effective weapon than the bow and arrow in the hands of an expert archer. While the musketeer will load and fire once, the bowsman will discharge a dozen arrows, and that, at a distance under fifty yards, with an accuracy nearly equal to the rifle. […]”
- 1992, Shannon Drake (pen name; Heather Graham Pozzessere), Damsel in Distress, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 34:
- Now, the bowsmen heralded a mighty charge. Their arrows flew, and then the Crusader army turned in a massive and organized strike.
- 1995, Radha Krishnamurthy, Sivatattva Ratnakara of Keladi Basavaraja: A Cultural Study, Keladi Museum and Historical Research Bureau, page 347:
- Basavarāja has given some tips to the bowsman so that his aim will not miss the target.
- 1997, John W. Friesen, Rediscovering the First Nations of Canada, Detselig Enterprises, →ISBN, page 100:
- Each hunter carried about fifty arrows and an expert bowsman could launch them so fast that a shot arrow was still in the air while the next was being released.
- 2011, Laura Anne Gilman, The Shattered Vine (The Vineart War; book three), Gallery Books, →ISBN, page 290:
- Kaïnam thought, briefly, of returning to his cabin for the spellwines he had stored there: more than the cask of heal-all, there was also a flask of firewine that would put a burn to the serpent’s hide, if he set it to a bowsman’s arrow.
- 2012, Claire Delacroix, The Warrior (The Rogues of Ravensmuir; book 3), Deborah A. Cooke, →ISBN:
- The bowsman’s arrow took flight and Nissa swore softly.
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Anagrams
- Bowmans