bow out

verb

bowed out; bowing out; bows out

intransitive verb

: retire, withdraw

also : lose

bowed out in the first round of the tournament

Synonyms of bow out

• lose
• fall

Examples of bow out in a Sentence

quite embarrassingly, the top-seeded player bowed out in the first round of competition

Recent Examples on the Web

Luther Campbell, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Dale Holness, and Elijah Manley had discussed one or two of them bowing out of the race but could not decide who that should be by the filing deadline. —Manuel Bojorquez, CBS News, 12 June 2026

Advertisement Barring Platner bowing out in time—which seems unlikely—Democrats are hunkering down, desperately hoping there aren’t more Platner revelations left to come out before Election Day. —Philip Elliott, Time, 10 June 2026

The Storm Prediction Center said a few supercells, rotating thunderstorms, could form ahead of the main line in Kansas, and the squall line could bow out with 60-80 mph winds and a brief tornado risk. —Kansas City Star, 8 June 2026

Since then, Americans have bowed out in the Round of 16 twice, failed to advance out of the group stage once and infamously missed the World Cup entirely in 2018. —Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 7 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for bow out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout