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

Netflix won the initial stage of the bidding war, which started last December, before ultimately bowing out. — David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 30 Sep. 2026

Jac Schaeffer, that show's creator, was scheduled to helm this follow-up as well before bowing out of the Marvel machine, and VisionQuest has been kicking around in development for a bit. — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 28 Sep. 2026

However, when Damon bowed out to star in The Odyssey, Affleck took over the role and, well, that’s where Garner drew the line. — Emlyn Travis, Entertainment Weekly, 25 Sep. 2026

The other openers had the most to lose here by bowing out of a huge tour. — Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 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