different between brow vs forehead

English

Etymology

From Middle English browe, from Old English br?, from Proto-Germanic *br?w?, from Proto-Indo-European *h?b?rúHs (“brow”) (compare Middle Irish brúad, Tocharian B pärw?ne (“eyebrows”), Lithuanian bruvìs, Serbo-Croatian obrva, Russian ????? (brov?), Ancient Greek ????? (ophrús), Sanskrit ???? (bhr?)), Persian ????? (abr?, “eyebrow”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /b?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Noun

brow (plural brows)

1. The ridge over the eyes; the eyebrow.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III Scene v^[1]:

     'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, / Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream / That can entame my spirits to your worship.

   • c. 1763, Charles Churchill (satirist)\Charles Churchill, The Ghost

     And his arch'd brow, pulled o'er his eyes, / With solemn proof proclaims him wise.

2. The first tine of an antler's beam.
3. The forehead.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act II Scene iii^[2]:

     Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,

     And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep,

     That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow

     Like bubbles in a late-disturb'd stream, […]
4. The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill.

   the brow of a precipice

5. (mining) A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
6. (figuratively) Aspect; appearance.
7. (nautical) The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
8. (nautical) The hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp.

Synonyms

• forehead

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

brow (third-person singular simple present brows, present participle browing, simple past and past participle browed)

1. To bound or limit; to be at, or form, the edge of.
   • 1634, John Milton, Comus

     Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts / That brow this bottom glade.

Middle English

Noun

brow

1. Alternative form of browe

Norn

Etymology

From Old Norse brauð, from Proto-Germanic *braud?. Compare Shetlandic brau.

Noun

brow

1. (Orkney) bread

Plautdietsch

Adjective

brow

1. brave, audacious, daring, courageous, dauntless, intrepid

English

Etymology

From Middle English forhed, forheed, from Old English f?reh?afod, foranh?afod (“forehead”), corresponding to fore- +? head. Cognate withScots foreheid (“forehead”),Dutch voorhoofd (“forehead”), German Vorhaupt (“forehead”), Danish forhoved (“brow; forehead; face”). Compare also West Frisian foarholle (“forehead”), German Low German Vörkopp (“forehead”).

Alternative forms

• for'ead, forrad, forread, forred, forrid (variable or uncertain spellings representing dialect or variant pronunciation)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f??h?d/, /?f????d/, /?f???d/, /?f???d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f???d/, /?f???d/, /?f???d/, /?f???h?d/

Noun

forehead (countable and uncountable, plural foreheads)

1. (countable) The part of the face above the eyebrows and below the hairline.
   • 1865, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Macmillan

     'This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, ‘everybody has won, and all must have prizes.’'

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
2. (uncountable) confidence; audacity
3. The upper part of a mobile phone, above the screen.

Synonyms

• brow

Translations