BROAD ARROW • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Broad arrow

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/brɔd ˈæroʊ/ Listen

noun

Arrow n. A missile weapon of offense, slender, pointed, and usually feathered and barbed, to be shot from a bow.

Broad arrow.

(a)

An arrow with a broad head.

(b)

A mark placed upon British ordnance and government stores, which bears a rude resemblance to a broad arrowhead.

adjective

Broad adj. (compar. broader; superl. broadest)

1.

Wide; extend in breadth, or from side to side; opposed to narrow; as, a broad street, a broad table; an inch broad.

2.

Extending far and wide; extensive; vast; as, the broad expanse of ocean.

3.

Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full. "Broad and open day."

4.

Fig.: Having a large measure of any thing or quality; not limited; not restrained; applied to any subject, and retaining the literal idea more or less clearly, the precise meaning depending largely on the substantive. "A broad mixture of falsehood." Note: Hence: -

5.

Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged. "The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case." "In a broad, statesmanlike, and masterly way."

6.

Plain; evident; as, a broad hint.

7.

Free; unrestrained; unconfined. "As broad and general as the casing air."

8.

(Fine Arts) Characterized by breadth. See Breadth.

9.

Cross; coarse; indelicate; as, a broad compliment; a broad joke; broad humor.

10.

Strongly marked; as, a broad Scotch accent. Note: Broad is often used in compounds to signify wide, large, etc.; as, broad-chested, broad-shouldered, broad-spreading, broad-winged.

Broad acres. See under Acre.

Broad arrow, originally a pheon. See Pheon, and Broad arrow under Arrow.

As broad as long, having the length equal to the breadth; hence, the same one way as another; coming to the same result by different ways or processes. "It is as broad as long, whether they rise to others, or bring others down to them."

Broad pennant. See under Pennant.

Synonyms: Wide; large; ample; expanded; spacious; roomy; extensive; vast; comprehensive; liberal.

See images of 'Broad arrow'

Etymology of 'Broad arrow'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Broad arrow" Quotes from Famous Books

... prosecutor—the lesser rogue should have stood here in the dock, and the greater in the witness-box. Our country takes care to decorate each according to his deserts—to him, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George; to me, the Broad Arrow!" ...

— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen

... recreations or games, inserted in Hearne's preface to his edition of Camden's Annals, p. xxviii. It is a little too long to be given entire; but the reader may here be informed that "shooting with the standard, shooting with the broad arrow, shooting at the twelve score prick, shooting at the Turk, leaping for men, running for men, wrestling, throwing the sledge, and pitching the bar," were suffered to be exhibited, on several Sundays, ...

— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... fishing and which was so admirably surrounded by natural bays and harbors. In 1665 we hear of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts—which distinctive term is still applied to the Massachusetts Legislature—forbidding the cutting of any trees suitable for masts. The broad arrow of the King was marked on all white pines, twenty-four inches in diameter, three feet from the ground. Big ships and little ships swarmed into existence, and every South Shore town made shipbuilding history. The ketch, a ...

— The Old Coast Road - From Boston to Plymouth • Agnes Rothery

... the king has had to pardon of a crime because of an act done that served the State. I am forbidden to return to the British Isles or to the land of my birth, forbidden free traffic as a citizen, hammered out of recognition by the strokes of enmity. A man of mark, indeed! Aye, with the broad arrow on me, with the shame of prison and ...

— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... specimens with regard to workmanship I have ever seen. Upon one edge of a piece of brown wood 6 inches long, 1 inch broad, flat and rounded off at the edges and ends, there are five notches, and on the opposite edge a single notch. Close to the end is a faint, crude representation of a broad arrow, below which is a confusion of small cuts, in a variety of angles, none quite vertical, some quite horizontal. On the reverse is a single—almost perpendicular—cut, and a bold X, and near the point, two shallow, indistinct diverging cuts. So far no one to whom the letter has been ...

— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield

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