arrow

1 of 2

noun

ar·​row ˈer-(ˌ)ō 

ˈa-(ˌ)rō

plural arrows

1

: a missile shot from a bow and usually having a slender shaft, a pointed head, and feathers at the butt

2

: something shaped like an arrow

especially : a mark (as on a map or signboard) to indicate direction

3

: a painful or damaging experience or occurrence that is likened to being shot with an arrow

… to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune …

—William Shakespeare

Illustration of arrow

• arrow 1

arrow

2 of 2

verb

arrowed; arrowing; arrows

1

a

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

transitive chiefly 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

The flip side of the coin shows an eagle holding arrows in one talon and olive branches in the other. — Maegan Vazquez, Washington Post, 15 July 2026

Put a different way, paying customers have subsidized higher operational costs for the company, but not enough to make the big arrow go up for shareholders. — Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 13 July 2026

Verb

All the Spain players move towards goal and Austria follow suit, but Baena arrows a straight pass that Mikel Oyarzabal, the only player to step backwards, heads wide. — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 14 July 2026

The must-read (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times) Times staff writer Deborah Vankin recently learned via a bow and arrow the importance and freedom that can come with literally letting go. — Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2026

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 *ark^w- "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 *ark^w- "bow" (*h₂erk^w- 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.

Verb

derivative of arrow entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1827, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing arrow

• arrow worm
• back arrow
• broad arrow
• straight arrow

Kids Definition

arrow

noun

ar·​row

ˈar-ō

1

: a weapon that is made to be shot from a bow and is usually a stick with a point at one end and feathers at the other

2

: a mark (as on a map) to show direction