See Also: bough(medicine)
bough(dictionary)
bough(dictionary)

bough (iou)



bough noun & verb.
[Old English bog, boh = Middle Low German boch, buch (Low German boog), Middle Dutch boech (Dutch boeg shoulders, chest of a horse, bows of a ship), Old High German buog shoulder, forearm (German Bug horse's hock or point of shoulder, bow of a ship), Old Norse bogr shoulder, from Germanic, rel. to Greek pekhus forearm, cubit.]
A. noun.
1. The shoulder of an animal. OE-LME.
2. Any of the larger limbs or offshoots of a tree; a (main) branch. OE.
3. A limb, a leg. Scot. M16.
4. The gallows. arch. L16.
Comb.: bough-house (a) US a temporary structure made of boughs; (b) dial. (now Hist.) a house opened only at fair-time for the sale of liquor; bough-pot (arch. & dial.) = BEAU-POT.
B. verb trans. Strip of boughs. rare. E16.
boughed adjective having boughs; stripped of boughs: LME.