What does bough mean?
A bough is a main branch of a tree, particularly one that is large, strong, and clearly distinguishable from smaller twigs and offshoots. The word is most often used in descriptive, literary, or poetic writing, where it evokes imagery of forests, orchards, and landscapes: snow-laden boughs bending under winter's weight, birds singing from a high bough, or fruit hanging heavily from a low one. Although functionally interchangeable with 'branch', 'bough' carries a somewhat elevated, traditional connotation and tends to appear in set expressions such as 'the bough breaks' from the well-known nursery rhyme 'Rock-a-bye Baby'. It is a countable noun with a regular plural, 'boughs'. For writers seeking a touch of atmosphere or formality in nature writing, 'bough' remains a valuable and evocative alternative to its more everyday synonym.
nounA main branch of a tree, especially one that is large and thick.
- A main branch of a tree, especially a large or sturdy one.
"The children built their treehouse on the sturdiest bough of the old oak."
"Snow weighed down every bough of the pine trees."
"A robin sang from a high bough, undisturbed by the walkers below."
Regular plural; commonly used when describing several branches, as in scenery or collective description.
"The wind rustled through the bare boughs of the winter forest."
Without the word 'bough', we'd lose one of nursery rhyme history's most suspenseful lines: 'when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bough
'Bough' descends from the Old English 'bōg' or 'bōh', which originally meant 'arm' or 'shoulder' before settling into its modern sense of a tree's limb — a natural metaphor linking the human body to the branching structure of trees. The same ancient Germanic root appears in the second element of 'elbow' (Old English 'elnboga') and survives in cognates such as German 'Bug'. The word has been part of English since its earliest recorded stages, making it far older than many common vocabulary terms.
How bough is actually used
'Bough' carries a slightly literary or poetic register compared to the more neutral 'branch'; it typically suggests a substantial limb of a tree rather than a small twig.
Easily confused with bough
A 'bow' can be a weapon for shooting arrows or an act of bending forward (pronounced differently in each case), whereas a 'bough' is always the large branch of a tree.