arrow

«arrow» in Mova's school dictionary: A thin straight stick with a sharp point at the front and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an arrow, arrows)

meaning for a pupil

1) A thin straight stick with a sharp point at the front and feathers at the back, shot from a bow. tree →

2) A sign shaped like this (→) that points to show a direction or where to look. tree →

3) A key or button on a keyboard or screen with this shape, used to move something. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths an arrow shows direction on a number line or in a diagram, and in graphs it shows that a line goes on and on; in science diagrams arrows show which way a force pushes or how energy or food passes in a food chain. In everyday life and safety, arrows on signs show the way out, one-way streets and fire exits. In stories, bows and arrows belong to hunters, archers and Robin Hood. Phrases: «follow the arrows», «arrow key», «bow and arrow», «straight as an arrow».

examples

• Robin Hood shot the arrow right into the middle of the target. tree →
• Follow the green arrows to the fire exit. tree →
• In a food chain, the arrow points from the grass to the rabbit that eats it. tree →
• Press the arrow keys to move your character. tree →
• Draw an arrow to show which way the force pushes the box. tree →
• The arrow on the sign said the zoo was to the left. tree →
• The road went on, straight as an arrow. tree →
• On a number line, the arrow shows that the numbers keep going. tree →
• The arrow whistled through the air. tree →

note

Countable: an arrow, two arrows. In a food chain the arrow means «is eaten by» / «gives energy to» — it points to the eater, not to the food; pupils often draw it the wrong way. Real arrows are dangerous: never aim a bow at a person.

In the corpora

• In the Müller-Lyer illusion, two equal lines look different lengths because of the arrow ends; a ruler shows the truth.
• Theo plans team games with drawings: arrows, circles and a stick figure of himself with a cape.
• In the testudo, or tortoise formation, soldiers locked their shields above and around them to protect against arrows.
• Skydivers spread out like a starfish to catch more air, and dive head first like an arrow to go faster.
• The arrows in a food chain point from the thing eaten to the thing that eats it.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «arrow» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.