brow

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).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bɹaʊ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ

brow (plural brows)

1. 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     ’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.

2. The first tine of an antler's beam.
3. 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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.

4. The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill.

   the brow of a precipice

5. (mining) A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
6. (figurative) Aspect; appearance.
7. (nautical) The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
8. (nautical) The hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp.

• forehead

brow (third-person singular simple present brows, present participle browing, simple past and past participle browed)

1. 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.

brow

1. Alternative form of browe

From Old Norse brauð, from Proto-Germanic *braudą. Compare Shetlandic brau.

brow

1. (Orkney) bread

brow

1. brave, audacious, daring, courageous, dauntless, intrepid