English

Alternative forms

• saddle-bow, saddlebow

Noun

saddle bow ‎(plural saddle bows)

1. The front part of the saddle that is arched up like a bow.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.8:

     the Prince […] stroke the Pagan with his steely brand / So sore, that to his saddle-bow thereby / He bowed low, and so a while did lie […].

   • 1931, ‘Sand in the Streets’, Time, 12 Oct 1931:

     The Government mobilized the full force of 18,000 mounted gendarmes and sent them picking their way over the sand about as heavily armored as any policeman could be: a long lance in one hand, a sabre at the saddle bow, a rifle across the back, a pistol on the hip.

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