broad arrow
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.98 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point; used traditionally in heraldry, and later by the British government to mark government property and convict uniforms.
Example Sentences
- "Their boats were manned by convicts, dressed in prison clothing, freely decorated with numbers and emblazoned all over with the ominous broad arrow."
- "It was his ill fate, to be a ſleepe, as old Abbas was going a hunting within the path, the King ſaw him not, but his pamperd horſe ſlartled at him, whereat immediatly the King ſent a broad Arrow into the poore mans heart, and ere all his followers had paſt, the man was kild a hundred times ouer, if ſo many Arrowes could haue forfeited ſo many liues, in imitating the King, as if the deed were good and commendable."
- "Broad arrows, frequently mentioned in Scotland as a blanche ferme, were fired from the short bow and had a swallow tail or broad head with two large barbs sloping backwards towards the shaft."
- "A hard yarn twangs the tension and fires its broad arrow out of a grim space of Old Australian smells: toejam, tomato sauce, semen and dead singlets the solitary have called peace but which is really an unsurrendered trench."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: brodarwe