ˈarrow-head
1. The head or pointed part of an arrow, made separately and of different material from the shaft.
| 1483 Cath. Angl., Arowhede, barbellum, catella. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 135 Two maner of arrowe heades..was vsed in olde tyme. The one..hauyng two poyntes or barbes, lookyng backewarde to the stele and the fethers, which surely we call in Englishe a brode arrowe head or a swalowe tayle. The other..hauing .ii. poyntes stretchyng forwarde, and this Englysh men do call a forke-head. The Parthyans vsed brode Arrowe heades..Our Englyshe heades be better in war than eyther forked heades or brode arrowe heades. 1618 Pulton Coll. Stat. 7 Hen. IV, vii, Arrow-heads shall be well boiled, brased, and hardened. 1870 Bryant Homer iv. I. 110 He forced the string to meet His breast, the arrow-head to meet the bow. |
b. esp. Those of flint, jade, or similar substances, found among the relics of prehistoric times.
| 1661 Sir R. Gordon in Burton Hist. Scotl. I. 136 note, Hos vulgus patrio sermone elf arrow-heads vocant. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Elf Arrows, Very small arrow-heads made out of a talky fissile stone are found in Virginia and Barbadoes. 1769 Pennant Tour Scot. 115 (Jam.) Elf-shots, i.e. the stone arrow-heads of the old inhabitants of this island, are supposed to be weapons shot by Fairies at cattle. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. I. vi. 181 Arrow-heads, are for the most part made of flint. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. iv. 263 Made his arrow-heads of sandstone, Arrow-heads of chalcedony. |
2. broad arrow-head. a. prop. a kind of arrow-head: see quot. 1545 in 1 a. b. transf. = broad-arrow: see arrow n. 10. c. fig. Any mark or impression resembling these.
| 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i, At every stationary boat or barge that split the current into a broad-arrow-head. |
3. in Cartography, etc. = arrow 3 b.
| 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 297 In the vignette the arrow heads indicate the direction of the currents. 1870 Todhunter Mech. for Beg. 3 Sometimes an arrow head is used in a figure to indicate [the direction in] which the force tends. |
4. Bot. English name of the endogenous genus of plants, Sagittaria, of which the common European species, S. sagittifolia (found from Virginia to China and Japan), has floating leaves shaped like an arrow-head.
| 1597 Gerard Herbal 337 Sagittaria may be called in English the water Archer, or Arrow heade. 1611 Cotgr., Sagette..the Ditch-weed called Arrow-head. 1809 Crabbe Tales 37 The Fen itself has a dark and saline herbage; there are rushes and Arrow-heads. 1883 Howells in Harper's Mag. Dec. 70/2 The cat-tails and arrow-heads in the ‘ma'sh’ at Ponkwasset. |
5. attrib. or adj.; = arrow-headed 2.
| 1875 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims i. 24 'Tis easier to..decipher the arrowhead character, than to interpret these familiar sights. 1877 Dawson Orig. World i. 24 The arrow-head writing, afterwards used by the Assyrians. |
Comb., as arrow-head-maker.
| 1598 Stow Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) II. v. xiii. 304/2 Besides these two trades belonging to Archers there were also two more, Stringers and Arrow head makers. 1647 Haward Crown Rev. 26 Arrow-head-maker: Fee..6l. 1s. 8d. |