intransitive: to move fast and straight like an arrow in flight
Just below us, a hunting peregrine falcon arrowed across the sere fields …—Tom Mueller
b
transitive: to hit or throw (something) toward a target fast and straight like an arrow
Mia Hamm … doesn't even look up as she arrows a pass to her teammate with almost telepathic confidence.—David Hirshey
2
transitivechiefly US: to shoot (an animal) with an arrow
In the spring, only boy turkeys can be shot or arrowed.—Fred LeBrun
Examples of arrow in a Sentence
Noun
The arrow on the map points north.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Hayes recalls one set-up: His 14-year-old son Baylor threw a football at an archery target while Hayes shot an arrow at it, attempting to pin it to the target.—Nancy Kruh, Peoplemag, 28 May 2024 The mail carrier, identified as T.W. in court documents, reported to authorities that the robbers demanded a USPS arrow key, also known as a master key, at gunpoint on Oct. 2, 2023, according to the release.—Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 May 2024
Verb
While still relying on the brand's key Flying D logo, the 2023 FX highlights arrow graphics on the frame, meant to indicate the power concentration in the middle of the racket.—Tim Newcomb, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2023 Virginia bowhunter Earl Phillips was elated to arrow his biggest buck to date on Nov. 20, a fine 8-point buck…that had no visible male organs.—Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 16 Jan. 2023 See all Example Sentences for arrow
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'arrow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English arwe, arowe, going back to Old English earh (strong noun, probably neuter), arwe, arewe (weak feminine noun), going back to Germanic *arhwō- "arrow," presumably originally an adjectival derivative "belonging to the bow" (whence also Old Icelandic ǫr, genitive ǫrvar "arrow," and, with an additional suffix, Gothic arhwazna), going back to dialectal Indo-European *arkw- "bow," whence also Latin arcus "bow, rainbow, arch"
Note:
See the Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, for details of the Old and Middle English developments. The editors point out that earh is a rare poetic word, occurring mainly in the compound earhfaru "flight of arrows," the more usual older words for "arrow" being strǣl and flā; the popularity of arwe in later Old English prose may have resulted from influence of the Old Norse word. — The etymon *arkw- "bow" (*h2erkw- if *a is excluded as a possible vowel) has been compared with various names for plants, as Greek árkeuthos "juniper (Juniperus macrocarpa)," Russian rakíta (for *rokíta by vowel reduction) "the willow Salix fragilis," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian ràkita "osier (Salix viminalis)" (both from Slavic *orkyta), Latvian ẽrcis "juniper." The presumed connection would be from the use of wood from these small trees as material for bows, though this is questionable (especially in the case of willows). In any case both sets of words appear to be of substratal origin.
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