- a U-shaped piece of wood fitted under and around the neck of a harnessed ox and attached to the yoke
- Also called: oxbow lake, cutoff a small curved lake lying on the flood plain of a river and constituting the remnant of a former meander
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
ox•bow
(oks′bō′),USA pronunciation n.
- a
U -shaped piece of wood placed under and around the neck of an ox with its upper ends in the bar of the yoke. - Geology, Geography[Physical Geog., Geol.]
- a bow-shaped bend in a river, or the land embraced by it.
- Also called ox′bow lake′. a bow-shaped lake formed in a former channel of a river.
- 1325–75; Middle English; see ox, bow2
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
oxbow /ˈɒksˌbəʊ/ n
'oxbow' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):